PRACTICAL 
FOOD ECONOMY 

ALICE GltCHELL KIRK 




Class 'TX3 
Book Jii. 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



Practical Food Economy 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/practicalfoodecoOOkirk 




Alice Gitchell Kirk. 



PRACTICAL 
FOOD ECONOMY 

By 
ALICE GITCHELL KIRK 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 



n on-refer T 

I 

SlAIVAD ♦ Q 3S 




BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1917 






Copyright, igiy. 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



All rights reserved 
Published, September, 1917 



SEP 13 1917 



Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Gushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. 



I.A478434 



DEDICATION 

" If I can put one touch of a rosy sunset into the life of any 
man or woman I shall feel I have worked with God." 

— George MacDonald. 

This book is the direct result of eleven years' 
lecturing on Home Economics, with requests from 
hundreds of women who have faithfully attended the 
lectures in Cleveland and other cities to put into book 
form my talks and demonstrations. The experience 
of teaching all grades from kindergarten through 
the academic departments in cooking has enabled 
me to interpret this study of foods and home 
making in terms which all women can understand and 
practice. 

To these women whom I have seen develop and 
grow in executive ability and interest in their homes 
through a harmonious correlation of brains and 
hands in their work, and who have been a source 
of continuous inspiration to me, I affectionately 
dedicate this book, trusting It will carry a message 
of present help which they will enjoy taking from the 
shelf and using every day for a still greater under- 
standing of foods and economy. 

— Alice Gitchell Kirk. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Preparedness IN THE Home i 

II Meats 51 

III Bread 86 

IV Milk . 115 

V Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables . .127 

VI Use of Fruits in Season 161 

VII Service First . . . . . ... 190 

Index .. . . . . . . . . 241 



LIST OF PLATES 



Portrait of the Author . . . . . Frontispiece 

rACmO PAGE 

Sifting the flour before measuring lightens and makes it go 

farther 14 

Dipping sifted flour lightly into the cup saves material. 

Do not shake it down or pack 14 

All measurements level, particularly baking powder, as too 

much is frequently used in baking .... 16 

Packing fats for accuracy into the measuring cup . . 16 

Always level measurements 18 

Successful method of making mayonnaise .... 18 

A convenient grouping of utensils near the kitchen range . 44 

Small utensils within easy reach 44 

Chart in color, showing composition of lamb chop, pork 

chop, smoked ham, beef steak and dried beef . . 58 

An entrance to a French garden 128 



Practical Food Economy 

CHAPTER I 

PREPAREDNESS IN THE HOME 
Waste Not, Want Not ! 

"If you would have sunlight in your home, see that you have 
work in it ; that you work yourself and set others to work. For 
Christ said, * My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.' Sunlight 
comes with work." 

— A. Brooke. 

Housekeeping or home making is not a "'one 
person" profession. While every one has been 
perfectly willing to concede the management of the 
home to the woman, it has been discovered that it 
is just as impossible for a woman alone, with little 
or no cooperation or help, to run the business end 
of the home successfully as it would be for a man 
to manage successfully his business without the 
united effort of every one in his employ to contribute 
toward its financial success. Home making is also 
a business and needs the united cooperation of every 
member of the home to bring it to the same financial 
success. 

X 



2 Practical Food Economy 

Home making is the biggest departmental occu- 
pation in the world, and the "Food Department" 
is no small part of this business which men, women, 
and children should understand for their health, 
strength, and development — mental, moral, and 
physical. 

We have reached the "crossroads" in this all- 
important study of foods where it requires a willing- 
ness to learn, and a steadiness of purpose to choose 
and follow the right "signposts" at this critical 
moment in the life, not only of our individual family, 
but of the world. From our years of experience we 
are ready to take the right road, labeled "Economy 
of Food" in buying, preparing, cooking, and thus 
do our part in avoiding unnecessary waste and help 
to develop a national thrift. 

Foods 

Buying, i. For every high-priced food, there is a 
medium or low-priced substitute. 

2. Cost of food does not determine nutritive value. 

3. Eliminate needlessly expensive material providing 
little nutrition. 

4. Buy food in quantities only when kept without 
waste. 

5. Your grocer and butcher have had years of experi- 
ence ; they will help you if you go to market at least once 
a week. Don't hesitate to ask when you don't know, 
especially about meats. 

6. Buy seasonable foods. 

7. Keep strict account of every penny spent every day. 



Preparedness in the Home 3 

8. Plan meals and marketing on paper from one day 
to three days in advance. This means strict economy. 

Preparing, i. Take care of all foods as soon as de- 
livered at the home. 

2. Empty goods from paper bags into covered jars; 
keeps food clean and prevents loss in waste. 

3. Wash and sort greens. Put into cheesecloth or 
sugar bags and place on ice or in the wet bag in a cool 
place ; will keep several days, and be ready to use at once. 

4. Outside lettuce leaves, beet tops, dandelions, mus- 
tard, etc., use for greens. Celery leaves and parsley, use 
for salads and flavoring. Dry for future use. 

5. Remove all skins of vegetables and fruits when 
possible after cooking; both material and food value 
saved. 

6. Bring home from butcher all meat, trimmings, bones, 
and extra fat. Use former for soup, sauces, and gravies, 
and the fat for cooking. 

Cooking. I. Use less fuel; casserole cooking or the 
fireless cooker for most foods. Foods taste better; less 
gas used, and food value saved from burning and over- 
cooking. 

2. Save all water in which foods are cooked for soups 
and sauces. Saves necessary mineral matter. Food 
value and flavor saved by steaming vegetables, instead of 
boiling. ""' 

3. Don't guess in cooking. Measure accurately. 

4. Study principles of cooking and measurements. 
Apply them when reading a recipe, and this will lessen 
much waste. 

5. Avoid fancy cooking. The finest flavors and best 
values are the result of simple but careful preparation and 
seasoning. 



4 Practical Food Economy 

6. Too much burned food thrown away. Cook with 
smaller amount of heat. 

7. Too much food spoiled in trying " Everybody's " 
recipe. Use only reliable, tested recipes. 

8. Learn to cook just enough and no more. Too much 
waste of time, material, fuel, and energy, in using up 
" left-overs." 

9. Know body-building foods. Apply to the needs of 
your family. Not too great a variety. Serve reasonable 
portions and waste none. 

Calories 

"No educated man can say that he 'does not believe in 
calories' when the energy in the food stuffs constitutes the 
basis of his being, and calories eliminated from his body are a 
measure of the sum total of his physical activities." 

— LusK. 

Professor Atwater's wonderful nutrition table^ 
compiled from four thousand laboratory tests in the 
United States Department of Agriculture at Wash- 
ington, D.C., shows the waste and fuel matter 
(measured in calories) of every food variety. By 
comparing the current prices of food with the nutri- 
tion and calories values in this table, you can deter- 
mine the most economical foods at any period of the 
year, and serve them in portions to meet the calorie 
amount required for your family. 

The calorie, or heat energy which is produced in 
the body by the food we eat, is a most necessary 
consideration in the balancing of our daily meals. 
I believe the average woman has planned sometimes 



Preparedness in the Home 5 

much better than she has been aware, and her family 
has been well nourished. Again, without an under- 
standing of foods and their real value in the body, 
the direct opposite has been the result of many 
menus. Again I repeat we have come to the "cross- 
roads" in real economy of foods, so we cannot afford 
waste or wavering of any sort. We must know, or at 
least begin to learn and learn fast. It is neither 
reasonable nor possible for the average woman 
with a family and the oversight of all the depart- 
ments in her home besides cooking, to work out to 
the minute fraction, three times a day, the necessary 
calories and food portions for the average normal 
family; but she can know that a calorie is a name 
for a measure of heat, or a unit which would raise 
one pint of water four degrees Fahrenheit; or, if 
she cannot image that, let her rise from a chair, 
shuffle her feet once, and sit down again. She has 
then spent this one unit of heat energy or calorie in 
her body which has been created there through the 
use of foods such as these given in the following 
table; or to visualize still more, a small list of a 
hundred calorie portions is given which is ap- 
proximately accurate and will aid in carefully balanc- 
ing foods so as to avoid too much or too little of any 
one kind, furnishing just what is needed for growth 
and repair without waste. "Take care of the 
calories and the proteins will take care of them- 
selves." Women who have not studied food chem- 
istry cannot learn everything at once. But if the 



6 



Practical Food Economy 



desire to know more of foods for good health and 
economy is created and applied every day in their 
cooking, they cannot help doing their part in build- 
ing strong men and women for the future. 

Nutrition Tables 

Animal Food 









Pro- 




Car- 




Fuel 


Food Materials (as purchased) 


R'f'se 


Wat'r 


Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 












drates 




PER Lb. 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


Beef, fresh : 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


Chuck ribs 


16.3 


52.6 


15.5 


15.0 




0.8 


910 


Flank .... 






10.2 


S4-0 


17.0 


19.0 




•7 


i,ios 


Loin .... 






13.3 


52.5 


16.I 


17-5 


— 


•9 


1,025 


Porterhouse steak 






12.7 


52.4 


19.I 


17.9 


— 


.8 


1,100 


Sirloin steak . . 






12.8 


54-0 


16.5 


16.I 


— 


.9 


955 


Neck .... 






27.6 


45-9 


I4-S 


II.9 


— 


.7 


i,i6s 


Ribs .... 






20.8 


43.8 


13.9 


21.2 


— 


.7 


1,13s 


Rib rolls . . . 






— 


63.9 


19-3 


16.7 


— 


•9 


1,05s 


Round .... 






7.2 


60.7 


19.0 


12.8 


— 


I.O 


890 


Rump .... 






20.7 


45 -o 


13.8 


20.2 


— 


•7 


1,090 


Shank, fore . . 






36.9 


42.9 


12.8 


7-3 


— \ 


.6 


S4S 


Shoulder and clod 






16.4 


56.8 


16.4 


9.8 


— 


•9 


715 


Fore quarter 






18.7 


49.1 


14-5 


17.5 


— 


•7 


99S 


Hind quarter 






15.7 


S0.4 


15-4 


18.3 


— 


•7 


i,04S 


Beef,corned, canned, pickled, 
















and dried : 
















Corned beef 


8.4 


49.2 


14-3 


23.8 


— 


4.6 


i,24S 


Tongue, pickled .... 


6.0 


58.9 


11.9 


19.2 


— 


4.3 


1,010 


Dried, salted, and smoked 


47 


53.7 


26.4 


6.9 


— 


8.9 


790 


Canned boiled beef . . 




51.8 


25.5 


22.5 


— 


1.3 


1,410 


Canned corned beef . . 


— 


S1.8 


26.3 


18.7 


— 


4.0 


1,270 


Veal: 
















Breast 


21.3 


52.0 


IS4 


II.O 


— 


.8 


745 


Leg 


. . 


14.2 


60.1 


15-5 


7-9 


— 


.9 


62s 


Leg cutlets . . 


. . 


3-4 


68.3 


20.1 


7-S 


— 


i.o 


695 


Fore quarter . . 


, . 


24-5 


54-2 


iS-i 


6.0 


— 


.7 


535 


Hind quarter . . 


. • 


20.7 


56.2 


16.2 


6.6 


— 


.8 


580 



Preparedness in the Home 









Pro- 
tein 




Car- 




Fuel 


Food Materials (as purchased) 


R'f'se 


Wat'r 


Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 












drates 




PER Lb. 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


Mutton : 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


Flank 


9.9 


39-0 


13-8 


36.9 


— 


0.6 


1,770 


Leg, hind 


18.4 


51.2 


I5-I 


14.7 


— 


.8 


890 


Loin chops 


16.0 


42.0 


13-5 


28.3 


— 


•7 


I4IS 


Fore quarter .... 


21.2 


41.6 


12.3 


24-5 


— 


•7 


1,23s 


Hind quarter, without tal- 
















low 


17.2 


45.4 


13.8 


23.2 


— 


•7 


1,210 


Lamb: 
















Breast 


I9.I 


45-5 


15.4 


19.1 


— 


.8 


1,075 


Leg, hind 


17.4 


52.9 


15.9 


13.6 


— 


•9 


860 


Pork, fresh : 
















Ham 


10.7 


48.0 


I3-S 


25.9 


— 


.8 


1,320 


Loin chops 


19.7 


41.8 


134 


24.2 


— 


.8 


1,245 


Shoulder 


12.4 


44.9 


12.0 


29.8 


— 


.7 


i,4SO 


Tenderloin 


— 


66.5 


18.9 


13.0 


— 


I.O 


89s 


Pork, salted, cured, pickled : 
















Ham, smoked .... 


13.6 


34.8 


14.2 


33-4 


— 


4.2 


1,635 


Shoulder, smoked , . . 


18.2 


36.8 


13.0 


26.6 


— 


S-S 


1,335 


Salt pork 


— 


7.9 


1.9 


86.2 


— 


3-9 


3,555 


Bacon, smoked .... 


77 


17.4 


9.1 


62.2 


— 


4.1 


2,715 


Sausage : 
















Bologna 


3-3 


S5.2 


18.2 


19.7 


— 


3.8 


1,155 


Pork 


— 


39-8 


13.0 


44.2 


I.I 


2.2 


2,075 


Frankfort 


— 


57.2 


19.6 


18.6 


I.I 


34 


1,155 


Soups : 
















Celery, cream of . . . 


— 


88.6 


2.1 


2.8 


S-o 


1-5 


235 


Beef 


— 


92.9 


4.4 


•4 


I.I 


1.2 


120 


Meat stew 


— 


84.5 


4.6 


4-3 


S'S 


I.I 


365 


Tomato 


— 


90.0 


1.8 


I.I 


5.6 


i-S 


185 


Poultry : 
















Chicken, broilers . . . 


41.6 


43.7 


12.8 


1.4 


— 


•7 


305 


Fowls 


25-9 


47.1 


13.7 


12.3 


— 


•7 


76s 


Goose 


17.6 


38.S 


13.4 


29.8 


— 


.7 


1,475 


Turkey 


22.7 


42.4 


16.1 


18.4 


— 


.8 


1,060 


Fish: 
















Cod, dressed .... 


29.9 


58.5 


II. I 


.2 


— 


.8 


220 


Halibut, steaks or sections 


17.7 


61.9 


15.3 


44 


— 


.9 


475 


Mackerel, whole . . . 


44.7 


40.4 


10.2 


4.2 


— 


•7 


370 



Practical Food Economy 



Nutrition Tables — Continued 

Animal Food — Continued 









Pro- 

TEIN 




Car- 




Fuel 


Food Materials (as purchased) 


R'f'se 


Wat'r 


Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 












drates 




PER Lb. 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


Fish : — Continued 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


Perch, yellow, dressed 


35-1 


50.7 


12.8 


0.7 


— 


0.9 


275 


Shad, whole 


SO. I 


35.2 


9.4 


4.8 


— 


.7 


380 


Shad, roe 




71.2 


20.9 


3.8 


2.6 


i-S 


600 


Fish, preserved : 
















Cod, salt 


24.9 


40.7 


16.0 


•4 


— 


I8.S 


32s 


Herring, smoked . . . 


444 


19.2 


20.S 


8.8 


— 


7-4 


755 


Fish, canned : 
















Salmon 


— 


63.5 


21.8 


12.1 


— 


2.6 


9IS 


Sardines 


S-o 


S3.6 


23.7 


12.1 


— 


5-3 


950 


Shellfish: 
















Oysters, "solids" . . . 


— 


88.3 


6.0 


1-3 


3.3 


I.I 


225 


Clams 


— 


80.8 


10.6 


I.I 


5.2 


2.3 


340 


Crabs 


52.4 


36.7 


7-9 


•9 


.6 


i-S 


200 


Lobsters 


61.7 


307 


S-9 


•7 


.2 


.8 


145 


Eggs : Hens' eggs .... 


11.2 


65.5 


I3-I 


9.3 


— 


•9 


63s 


Dairy products, etc. : 
















Butter 


— 


II.O 


I.O 


85.0 


— 


3.0 


3,410 


Whole milk 


— 


87.0 


3.3 


4.0 


5-0 


.7 


310 


Skim milk 


— 


90.5 


3.4 


•3 


S-i 


.7 


165 


Buttermilk 


— 


91.0 


3.0 


•S 


4.8 


.7 


160 


Condensed milk . . . 


— 


26.9 


8.8 


8.3 


54-1 


1.9 


1,430 


Cream 


— 


74.0 


2.S 


18.S 


45 


•S 


865 


Cheese, Cheddar . . . 


— 


27.4 


27.7 


36.8 


4.1 


4.0 


2,07s 


Cheese, full cream . . . 


— 


34.2 


25-9 


33-7 


2.4 


3.8 


1,88s 



Vegetable Food 



Flour, meal, etc. : 
















Entire wheat flour . . . 


— 


11.4 


13.8 


1.9 


71.9 


1.0 


1,650 


Graham flour .... 


— 


11.3 


13.3 


2.2 


71.4 


1.8 


1,64s 


Wheat flour,pat. roll.proc. : 
















High grade and medium 


— 


12.0 


11.4 


1.0 


75.1 


.5 


1,63 s 


Low grade .... 


— 


12.0 


14.0 


1.9 


71.2 


.9 


1,640 



Preparedness in the Home 



Food Materials (as ]?urchased) 



Flour, meal, etc. :— Continued 

Macaroni, vermicelli, etc. 

Wheat breakfast food 

Buckwheat flour 

Rye flour . . . 

Corn meal . . 

Oat breakfast food 

Rice .... 

Tapioca . . . 

Starch .... 
Bread, pastry, etc. : 

White bread . . 

Brown bread . . 

Graham bread . 

Whole wheat bread 

Rye bread . . 

Cake .... 

Cream crackers . 

Oyster crackers . 

Soda crackers, . 
Sugars, etc. : 

Molasses . . . 

Candy .... 

Honey .... 

Sugar, granulated 

Maple sirup . . 
Vegetables : 

Beans, dried . . 

Beans, Lima, shelled 

Beans, string 

Beets .... 

Cabbage . . . 

Celery .... 

Corn, green (sweet) 
portion . . . 

Cucumbers . . 

Lettuce . . . 

Mushrooms . . 



edible 



R'r'sE 



Per 
cent 



7-0 

20.0 
15.0 
20.0 



IS-0 
15.0 



Wat'r 



Per 

cent 

10.3 

9.6 

13.6 

12.9 

I2.S 

7-7 
12.3 
11.4 



35-3 

43-6 

35-7 

38.4 

35-7 

19.9 

6.8 

4.8 

5-9 



12.6 

68.5 
83.0 
70.0 
77-7 
75-6 

75-4 
81. 1 

80.5 
88.1 



Tt^n 




Car- 




FUEI 




Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 






drates 




PER Lb. 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


134 


0.9 


74.1 


1.3 


1,64s 


I2.I 


1.8 


75-2 


1-3 


1,680 


6.4 


1.2 


77-9 


•9 


1,60s 


6.8 


•9 


78.7 


•7 


1,620 


9.2 


1.9 


754 


1.0 


1,63s 


16.7 


7-3 


66.2 


2.1 


1,800 


8.0 


.3 


79.0 


4 


1,620 


•4 


.1 


88.0 


.1 


1,650 


— 


— 


90.0 


— 


1,67s 


9.2 


1-3 


S3.I 


I.I 


1,200 


5-4 


1.8 


47.1 


2.1 


1,040 


8.9 


1.8 


52.1 


i-S 


1, 19s 


9-7 


•9 


49-7 


1-3 


1,130 


9.0 


.6 


53-2 


1-5 


1,170 


6.3 


9.0 


63.3 


1.5 


1,630 


9.7 


12.1 


69.7 


1-7 


1,92s 


u-3 


lo.s 


70.S 


2.9 


1,910 


9.8 


9.1 


73.1 


2.1 


h^75 


— 


— 


70.0 


— 


I,22S 


— 


— 


96.0 


— 


1,680 


— 


— 


81.0 


— 


1,420 


— 


— 


lOO.O 


— 


1,750 


— 


— 


71.4 


— 


1,250 


22.5 


1.8 


59-6 


3-5 


1,520 


7-1 


•7 


22.0 


1-7 


540 


2.1 


•3 


6.9 


.7 


170 


1-3 


.1 


7-7 


.9 


160 


1.4 


.2 


4.8 


•9 


US 


.9 


.1 


2.6 


,8 


65 


3.1 


I.I 


19.7 


.7 


440 


•7 


.2 


2.6 


4 


6S 


I.O 


.2 


2-5 


.8 


6S 


3-5 


•4 


6.8 


1.2 


18S 



10 



Practical Food Economy 



Nutrition Tables — Continued 

Vegetable Food — Continued 









Pro- 




Car- 




Fuel 


Food Materials (as purchased) 


R'f'se 


Wat'r 


Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 








tein 




drates 




perLb. 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


Vegetables : — Continued ( cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


Onions 


lO.O 


78.9 


1.4 


0.3 


8.9 


0.5 


190 


Parsnips .... 




20.0 


66.4 


1-3 


4 


10.8 


I.I 


230 


Peas, dried . . . 




— 


9-5 


24.6 


1.0 


62.0 


2.9 


1,565 


Peas, shelled . . . 




— 


74.6 


7.0 


•5 


16.9 


1.0 


440 


Cowpeas, dried . . 




— 


13.0 


21.4 


1.4 


60.8 


34 


1,505 


Potatoes .... 




20.0 


62.6 


1.8 


.1 


14.7 


•8 


295 


Rhubarb .... 




40.0 


56.6 


4 


4 


2.2 


4 


60 


Sweet potatoes 




20.0 


55-2 


1.4 


.6 


21.9 


.9 


440 


Spinach .... 




• — 


92-3 


2.1 


•3 


3.2 


2.1 


95 


Squash 




50.0 


44.2 


•7 


.2 


4-5 


4 


100 


Tomatoes .... 







94-3 


.9 


4 


3-9 


•5 


100 


Turnips .... 




30.0 


62.7 


.9 


.1 


5-7 


.6 


120 


Vegetables, canned : 


















Baked beans . . 




— 


68.9 


6.9 


2-S 


19.6 


2.1 


555 


Peas, green . . . 




— 


85.3 


3.6 


.2 


9.8 


I.I 


235 


Corn, green . . . 




— 


76.1 


2.8 


1.2 


19.0 


•9 


1430 


Tomatoes .... 




— 


94.0 


1.2 


.2 


4.0 


.6 


95 


Fruits, berries, etc., fresh 


: 
















Apples 




25.0 


63.3 


•3 


•3 


10.8 


•3 


190 


Bananas 




35-0 


48.9 


.8 


4 


14-3 


.6 


260 


Grapes ...... 




25.0 


58.0 


I.O 


1.2 


14.4 


4 


295 


Lemons 




30.0 


62.S 


•7 


•5 


5.9 


4 


125 


Muskmelons .... 




50.0 


44.8 


•3 


— 


4.6 


•3 


80 


Oranges . . . . . 




27.0 


634 


.6 


.1 


8.5 


4 


150 


Pears 




lO.O 


76.0 


•5 


4 


12.7 


4 


230 


Raspberries .... 




— 


85.8 


1.0 




12.6 


.6 


220 


Strawberries . . . 




S-0 


85.9 


•9 


.6 


7.0 


.6 


150 


Watermelons .... 




594 


37.5 


.2 


.1 


2.7 


.1 


SO 


Fruits, dried : 


















Apples ...... 




— 


28.1 


1.6 


2.2 


66.1 


2.0 


1,185 


Apricots .... 




— 


29.4 


4-7 


1.0 


62.S 


2.4 


1,125 


Dates 




lO.O 


13.8 


1.9 


2.5 


70.6 


1.2 


1,275 


Raisins 




lO.O 


13. 1 


2.3 


3.0 


68.5 


31 


1,26s 



Preparedness in the Home 



11 









Pro- 
tein 




Car- 




Fuel 


Food Materials (as purchased) 


R'f'se 


Wat'r 


Fat 


bohy- 


Ash 


Val. 












drates 




PER Lb. 




Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Per 


Calo- 


Nuts: 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


cent 


ries 


Almonds 


4S-0 


27 


ii.S 


30.2 


9-5 


I.I 


1,51s 


Butternuts 


86.4 


.6 


3.8 


8.3 


•5 


•4 


38s 


Chestnuts, fresh . . . 


16.0 


37.8 


S-2 


4-5 


35-4 


I.I 


9IS 


Cocoanut, prepared . . 


— 


3-5 


6.3 


57-4 


31-5 


1.3 


2,865 


Pecans, polished . . . 


53.2 


1.4 


S.2 


33-3 


6.2 


•7 


1,465 


Peanuts 


24-5 


6.9 


I9.S 


29.1 


18.5 


i-S 


1,775 


Walnuts, black .... 


74.1 


.6 


7.2 


14.6 


3-0 


•S 


.730 


Walnuts, English . . . 


58.1 


I.O 


6.9 


26.6 


6.8 


.6 


1,250 


Miscellaneous : 
















Chocolate 


— 


S-9 


12.9 


48.7 


30.3 


2.2 


2,625 


Cocoa, powdered . . . 


— 


4.6 


21.6 


28.9 


37-3 


7.2 


2,160 


Cereal coffee, infusion (i 
















part boiled in 20 parts 
















water) 


— 


98.2 


.2 




1.4 


,2 


30 



Approximate ioo-Calorie Portions of Some 
Common Foods 

Realizing that measuring by cup and tablespoonful 
varies so much that exact data for calorie portions 
could not be determined accurately, the author still 
believes it the most helpful and practical method in 
kitchen and home measurements. This is based 
upon Bulletin Number 28 of Office of Experiment 
Stations, United States Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D.C., which has been varied from only 
a little so as to always keep the measure in terms 
the average woman in the home can grasp at once. 
There are some women with time at their command 
who will be interested to know that 28.35 grams 



12 



Practical Food Economy 



equal one ounce, the unit upon which the calories 
are based ; but this fact is not of much use to the 
busy woman with three meals to prepare. If she 
can visualize the following approximate measure- 
ments of some well-known foods — a few calories 
more or less in a day is not a serious matter — then 
from day to day this correct balancing of the diet 
will come to mean something more than terms of 
"calories" ; she will see them in food measurements 
with which she is familiar and using every day in 
the preparation of meals. 



Egg Yolks 


2 




Lettuce 


2 heads (large) 


Egg Whites 


7 




Onions (raw) 


3 to 4 me- 


Apple, Baked 








dium 


(sweetened) 


1 large 




Apple Sauce 


1 cup (scant) 


Popover 


I 




Orange Juice 


I cup 


French Rolls 


I 




Corn Flakes 


i^ cup8 


Bananas 


I large 




Corn Meal 




Dates 


3 to 4 




(cooked) 


f cup 


Figs (dried) 


i| 




Oatmeal (cooked) 


I cup 


Grapes 


I large bunch 


Puffed Rice 


i|cup 


Peaches 


3 




Rice (steamed) 


f cup 


Prunes (stewed) 


2 tos 




Cup Custard 


^cup 


Raisins 


20 to 25 




Buttermilk 


i| cups 


Rib Roast (and ap- 




Cream (thin) 


J cup 


proximately all 






Cherries (stoned) 


I cup 


other beef roasts 






Currants 


i^ cups 


and steaks) 


average 


slice 


Grape Juice 


Icup 


Frankfurter 


I link 




Dried Beef 




Lamb Chop 


1 inch thick 


(creamed) 


icup 


Chicken (roasted) 


I slice 


(aver- 


Codfish 






age) 




(creamed) 


icup 


Brazil Nuts 


2 




Tuna Fish 




Peanuts 


20 to 24 


single 


(canned) 


h cup 


English Walnuts 


8 to 10 




Lobster (canned) 


f cup 



Preparedness in the Home 



13 



Dried Bean, Cel- 




Brown Sugar 


2 tablespoon- 


ery, Corn, Oys- 






fuls 


ter, and Potato 




Bacon Fat 


I tablespoonful 


Soup 


^ cup each 


Butter 


I tablespoon- 


Lentil Soup 


I cup 




ful (scant) 


Split Pea Soup 


i cup (large) 


Cottage Cheese 


si tablespoon- 


Tomato (cream) 






fuls 


Soup 


1 cup (scant) 


Cream (heavy) 


i^ tablespoon- 


LimaJBeans (fresh) | cup 




fuls 


Peas (green) 


f cup 


Whipped Cream 


2 tablespoon- 


Peas (canned) 


fcup 




fuls 


Honey 


I tablespoon- 


Oleomargarine 


I tablespoonful 




ful 


Olive Oil 


I tablespoonful 


Maple Sirup 


i^ tablespoon- 


Mayonnaise 


I tablespoon- 




fuls 


Dressing 


ful 


Granulated Sugar 


2 tablespoon- 


Peanut Butter 


li tablespoon- 




fuls 




fuls 




Food 


Sense 







Purpose 


Material 


Occupation 


Daily Portion 
Approximately 




ist 








I lb. high protein 


• 


To keep body 




Meat 


Active, 


value 




in repair 


Protein 


Fish 


Out-of- 


i lb. low protein 




To rebuild 


Eggs 


doors 


value 




wasted 




Milk 


Inactive 


(An average of t5 




tissues 








of an ounce for 
each pound in 


§ 
















Potatoes 


weight per person) 


b 


2d 






Whole Rice 


or about 




To supply heat 


Fats and 


Fuel or 


Flour 


tV for Proteins 




and energy 


Carbohy- 


Calories 


Cereals 


Stu for Fats and 




To keep body 


drates 




Olive Oil 


Starches 




m operation 






and Fats 
Tapioca 


A for Mineral 
Matter 






Mineral 
Matter 


Vegetables 

and 

Fruits 





14 Practical Food Economy 

Food Sense 

Food for one day Family — Average required calories 

per person Husband, active busi- for one day, 2500 to 

ness, 2 children, ages 3500 (according to age 
6 and 10 years and occupation) 

Breakfast: Fruit, Rolls, Butter, Cereal, Top Milk, Coffee, Cocoa, Milk 
Average calories per person, 475.62 

Luncheon: Dried Bean Soup, Whole Wheat Bread, Dates, Lettuce 
Mayonnaise Sandwiches 

Average calories per person, 788.8 

Dinner: Cream of Celery Soup, Chuck Roast, Gravy, Potatoes, String 
Bean Salad, Lettuce, Baked Apples, Bread, No Butter, Suet 
Pudding with Raisins, Milk 

Average calories per person, 185 2.1 

Total average calories (for one day) per person, approximately, 3000 

Proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and mineral matter 
are interrelated in all foods, and only by an every- 
day study of Atwater's Nutrition Table can any 
woman determine food values and their place in 
the meals of her family ; then watch growth, weight, 
color, and activity in each one and change foods as 
required, keeping the necessary calorie basis, per day. 

Directions for Measuring 

All measurements are level, measured In a stand- 
ard half-pint cup of tin, aluminum, or glass, divided 
into quarters, halves, and thirds. 

Most foods weigh J pound for each cup. 

A standard measuring teaspoon Is divided in 
halves and quarters, fastened together and sold 
under the name of "Measuring Spoons." 




Sifting the Flour Before Measuring Lightens 
It and Makes It Go Farther. 





«l^. 






Dipping Sifted Flour Lightly into the Cur 

Saves Material. Do Not Shake It 

Down or Pack. 



Preparedness in the Home 15 

Tablespoon, regulation size. 

Flour, sifted before measuring and then dipped 
lightly with the tablespoon into the cup. Level off 
top with knife or spatula. 

Fats are packed in the cup. 

These are the standard measurements taught in 
all schools and colleges, and should always be used 
in the home ; the result will be a great saving in 
material used and less failures in recipes. 

Assemble all utensils and materials before begin- 
ning work. 

Housekeeper's Measuring Schedule 

Leavening Agents. Dough is made light or porous in 
the following ways : 

A. By the production (and expansion of heat) of car- 
bon-dioxide gas from the baking soda in baking powder 
or baking soda, combined with some acid substance. 

B. From carbon-dioxide gas produced by growth of 
yeast — a plant. 

C. From the expansion of entangled air, incorporated in 
the dough by means of beaten eggs, especially the white, and 
by the beating of batters, and by the folding of thick doughs. 

D. From the expansion of water to steam. 

Two level teaspoonfuls of baking powder are equivalent 
to one half teaspoon of baking soda combined with one 
and one half teaspoons of cream of tartar ; or one cup of 
thick sour milk, or one cup of molasses, in place of the 
cream of tartar. 

Two cups flour made into a soft dough require two to 
four level teaspoonfuls of baking powder. 



16 Practical Food Economy 

Batters and muffin mixtures require somewhat more 
baking powder to the flour than doughs. One teaspoonful 
less of baking powder may be used for each egg added. 

The yeast plant grows best at 75° to 90° F. It changes 
sugar into alcohol and carbon-dioxide gas. Flour contains 
a small proportion of sugar, and during bread making 
some of the starch is changed into sugar, but the yeast 
begins to act more quickly if a little sugar is added at first. 

Salt and fat hinder the growth of the yeast. Low tem- 
peratures stop the growth almost completely; high tem- 
peratures kill the plant. 

When eggs are used as leavening agents, the whites are 
beaten separately, as they will hold much more air than 
the yolks, and folded into the mixture the last thing, 
breaking as few air cells as possible. 

When air is depended on for leavening agent, all ma- 
terials are kept cold as possible. Cold air expands more 
on heating than warm air. In pastry making, heat also 
melts the fat, so that the dough cannot be handled. (See 
Pastry.) 

Nutrition and Wise Marketing 

"In increasing numbers women read the newspapers, not 
the ladies* papers, and in the dim future we may hope that 
editors will find this out. In reading these newspapers women 
are setting in motion the same trains of thought that men are 
following throughout the country, and the minds of the sexes 
are being encouraged to grow toward and not away from each 
other.'' 

— Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale. 

Wherever we go to purchase materials for our 
daily food, clothing, or shelter, we are greeted with 




All Measurements Level, Particularly Baking 

Powder, as Too Much Is Frequently Used 

IN Baking. 




Packing Fats for Accuracy into the Measuring 
Cup. 



Preparedness in the Home 17 

a constant rise in price of every article we wish to 
buy, and many strange but plausible tales are told 
us over the counter why this must be so. 

However, that is not for us to discuss at the 
present time. What we should know is whether it 
is necessary to buy the article at the advanced 
price, or whether some other commodity will answer 
every purpose at a less cost ; and many times, in 
the case of food, whether it will not give even greater 
nourishment than that which is higher priced. 

Is this hard for women to understand ? Nothing 
is too hard for them if they will acquire the habit of 
thinking about the economic side of home making. 
Since the efficiency of all labor in the home or out 
of it depends upon energy and constant repair of 
waste in the body by food, it is certainly of no 
small moment that every citizen, from the youngest to 
the oldest, should know how to maintain this machine 
at the highest efficiency, and in such a crisis as the 
present one, should know where to turn to find nour- 
ishment in the form which is best and cheapest. 

Was there any one but Graham Lusk (high au- 
thority on nutrition) brave enough to tell the aver- 
age woman that canned tomatoes are practically 
valueless as food ? Should the laboring man who 
has to have three thousand calories or heat units of 
energy a day for his work spend his money for a 
can of tomatoes which is little less than flavored 
water ? (One hundred calories per pound : At- 
water, United States Government report.) 



18 Practical Food Economy 

This is saying nothing against tomatoes when 
used with plenty of other good food, but too much 
labor is given by women in the home to the canning 
of tomatoes when it should be spent on the preser- 
vation of nutritive foods, and in the getting of real 
food returns for money spent. 

Again, when wheat advances and there Is a rise in 
the price of bread, — corn meal, oatmeal, dried 
beans, or rice may all be used in place of bread, at 
a lower price. We have been led to believe that all the 
ash necessary in the diet comes from the grains, and 
yet in some of our recent tests it has been found in 
milk when all protein content had been entirely 
removed. From a recent experiment on rats, in 
v/hich growth had come to a standstill when the fat 
in the diet consisted of lard, but rapid growth fol- 
lowed when butter fat was substituted, we naturally 
conclude that butter fat must contain something in 
nutrition which lard does not. 

In another report, the food of sixty families, with 
incomes varying from $3.25 to $15.00 per week, was 
examined ; when above $5.00 per week was spent, 
the family was nourished, averaging three thousand 
calories daily ; below $5.00 a week, under-nutrition. 
Staple foods, bread, potatoes, milk, sugar, beef, 
and vegetables, were main foods, little use being 
made of corn meal, oatmeal, dried peas, beans, 
macaroni, spaghetti, cheese, fish, raisins, dates, or 
figs. It was also found that when a child was 
underweight it was invariably due to inadequate 




Always Level Measurements. 




Successful Method of Making Mayonnaise. See page 222, 



Preparedness in the Home 19 

diet. These were also tests made by Graham 
Lusk. ( 

During a recent strike in Chicago, a poor woman 
spent her last ten cents to buy lettuce to feed her 
hungry family. If she had bought dried beans and 
cooked them without waste, she would have had 
seventy-one times as much food for the same money ; 
or, if she had spent five cents for whole wheat bread, 
or wheat coarsely ground for porridge, and five 
cents for milk, she could have increased their nourish- 
ment fifty per cent. 

A few weeks ago, while lecturing in this same 
city, a boy about twelve years old appeared at our 
lecture hall, and looking eagerly at our beautiful, 
clean, white, modern kitchen, stopped before it and 
said to me, "I have come to have you tell me what 
to eat.'V "Why did you come here?^^ I asked. 
"Because everything I eat at noon makes me hurt 
here," and he placed his hand on his stomach, "and 
some of the men told me to come here and you 
would tell me what to eat." " First tell me what you 
eat for breakfast," I said. "Coffee," he answered. 
"Anything else.?" I asked. "Sometimes a little 
bread, but mostly coffee." "At what hour do you 
eat your breakfast ? " "About six-thirty," he replied, 
"and I don't have lunch until twelve, and then I 
want to eat everything I see." "What do you 
usually decide upon?" "Frankfurters, potatoes, 
pie, and coffee, and then in a little while my stomach 
hurts, and sometimes I have to stay home all day." 



20 Practical Food Economy 

He then told me, after much questioning, that 
the doctor had given him some medicine, but had 
said nothing about his food, nor had he told him 
that growing children should never drink coffee, as 
it is only a stimulant and not a food, which he 
must have in order to grow and be well and happy. 
Never shall I forget this boy's pleading face and his 
willingness to learn why and how he should eat. We 
also sent some advice to his mother, who was eager 
to know and help make her boy well. There was 
no more coffee drinking, but real building food was 
served in that home, and the boy reported to me 
nearly every morning for three weeks. When we 
left him, if not entirely cured, at least he and his 
mother were thinking about this all-important ques- 
tion of nourishment. The example of this one boy 
who wished to know brought other men and women 
every day to our lecture room, asking questions rela- 
tive to foods and their values in their own dietary. 

Every day for years in my own city, we have 
been answering these same questions asked by young 
and old, on the street cars, in elevators, and in my 
office. 

Se we naturally conclude that one of the large 
factors in under-nutrition or poor nourishment is 
either bad marketing or lack of understanding in 
regard to foods that build our bodies. This has 
been well illustrated in the lunches in our public 
schools, where marked improvement in the physical 
and mental growth of the children has followed the 



Preparedness in the Home 21 

establishment of free or penny lunches. Surely a 
city and state economy should be the direct result 
of such service to our children ! The parents must 
have the same nourishment, and they will if every 
woman in charge of a home will devote one hour a 
day to getting and applying information which will 
enable her to buy the best and cheapest foods for 
herself and family. 

If, as men, women, and children, we lived sepa- 
rate lives in separate homes, and not all of us ate 
food, I could understand the lecture bureau man 
who said to me recently: "Only women are in- 
terested in your lectures ; they are not for men and 
women, are they?" Women and children, yes; 
but it would take no urging to bring the husbands, 
if some evenings could be devoted to the study of 
real preparedness — that is, our food supply and 
economy in its distribution, purchase, and prepara- 
tion, which as American people we shall have to 
know. This is not a woman's profession alone, but 
one to which every family in the United States, and 
every member of it, must devote time and interest, 
for the immediate welfare and preparedness of our 
nation begins with the food interest and economy in 
the home. 

Looking after Finances 

There are two things which interest all people. 
One is the earning of money, and the other is the 
spending of it. For years men and women who have 



22 Practical Food Economy 

been earning money in any avenue whatsoever, 
business or professional, have been putting great 
mental effort into devising ways and means of 
increasing their income; but the new note in our 
home economics is to look well and carefully to the 
saving and spending without waste and extravagance. 

Some one has said, "It is not what you earn, but 
what your wife saves." It does not seem quite fair 
to place all the saving on one side of the partner- 
ship ; but, whatever this outgo represents, let it be 
fair play and equal partners in all spending and 
saving. 

Women are and must be the spenders of money; 
but whose ? Let us make a proper beginning by 
doing a little tabulating of these people referred to 
as interested in the earning and spending of money. 

First, married people whose income consists 
wholly of the husband's earnings. 

Second, married people where both follow their 
own vocations and earn separate salaries. 

Third, widows with or without children who have 
taken the husband's place as wage earners, and 
single women in business of their own, or on a 
salary. 

Fourth, unmarried people who have heard the 
warning, "Between even those who love most de- 
votedly finances will bring friction." To this class 
we must try to give help to keep them off the rocks 
of worry and possible shipwreck. 

Fifth, woman's viewpoint : 



Preparedness in the Home 23 

(i) No self-respecting woman likes to ask her 
husband for money every time she desires some- 
thing for her personal use. 

(2) Most women know the irritation of needing 
and not knowing whether they can afford to buy a 
new pan or a new gown. 

(3) The widow educating her children, and un- 
trained in division of income, does not make a fair 
distribution to all, particularly to herself. 

Sixth, man's viewpoint : 

(i) The irresponsible spending of money by 
women, who realize nothing of the efforts made in 
earning it. 

(2) Man's natural reluctance in parting with 
money for which he has worked. 

The best available thinking by both partners on 
their future income is necessary to clear the way 
for a happy, healthy, prosperous partnership in 
married Hfe. There should be a clear understanding 
of the financial question when two people become 
engaged to be married, and all buying for the home 
should be based on such income and standards for 
their future living. 

A business system should be adopted in the home, 
covering the allowance and outgo each day, this 
record being balanced at the end of each week. 
With allowance properly proportioned for the neces- 
sary expenditures in a home, and outgo for each 
class of expenditures tabulated for the day, and 
summed up at the end of each week and month, an 



24 Practical Food Economy 

interesting business, such as women have never 
known, would soon be developed in the home. 
This regardless of whether one or both are earning 
the money. If this is the right partnership, both 
are earning it and should spend it equally. 

And this is not all. The other partner, the man, 
at the end of each week or month should make a 
statement equally explicit relative to his finances, 
as much of the so-called reckless, careless spending 
has been done because women do not have money 
given them for personal use and therefore resort to 
reckless charging. 

Another is when both members of this firm do 
not understand the cash-on-hand system and prac- 
tice it. Many times the woman goes on spending 
lavishly, when, if she only knew conditions and 
balances, she would use the utmost care and save, 
as no one knows so well how to do. So it is not 
what "the man earns and the wife saves", but what 
both earn and both save equally and economically. 

The man and woman working this out together 
are in an easier position than the "third" family 
referred to. She, the widow, must not only earn, 
but know how to spend this money wisely for her 
family, besides providing for the careful up-keep of 
the home and education of her children, and what 
is so often overlooked — herself. 

A simple and easily understood method of daily 
accounting is found in these Household Expense 
Cards : 



Preparedness in the Home 



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Practical Food Economy 





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Preparedness in the Home 



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28 Practical Food Economy 

Not False, but True Economy 

"Great Wealth is measured by savings rather than by 
amounts earned, and the greatest losses are in the Home." 

There Is nothing In the world which gives expres- 
sion to the great natural love Instinct In woman as 
the act of making a home. It should not be the ex- 
pression of an end in Itself, but as a means through 
which the woman grows, expands, rounds out, and 
balances her life. 

All our Hves as women, we have been working to 
make the homes of our husbands and children 
beautiful, comfortable, happy places in which to 
live. We have reared children, cooked, washed, 
ironed, swept, dusted, mended, sewed, and knitted, 
besides manufacturing cloth, rugs, candles, and 
many other things which are now being done better 
outside of the home for our use. We were worn, 
tired, sick, unhappy creatures as a class, and why ? 

Because we were making all this "doing" in the 
home the ultimate end rather than the expression 
of our own development and growth, which should 
have given freedom rather than bondage. 

J. A. Hobson writes : "Given a number of human 
beings with a certain development of physical and 
mental faculties and of social resources, how best 
can they utihze these powers for the attainment of 
the most complete satisfaction, or for the largest 
number of healthy and happy beings .f^" Let us 
see how this can be done, at least by women. 



Preparedness in the Home 29 

There was a time in our history when all the 
occupations mentioned were done in the home, 
because there were no factories or bakeshops or 
electric light plants which could supply us with the 
necessary materials, foods, or lighting, and the 
home was naturally the creative place for our necessi- 
ties. The home was independent industrially and 
in no way dependent upon the world at large and 
was not involved in outside labor problems. 

Woman had no thought of a "career" at that 
time, as she was busily engaged in producing at 
home; neither did she suggest to city or village 
boards how the housecleaning should be done; nor 
had she given much thought to hygiene, sanitation, 
or warding off disease, for then it was taken for 
granted every child must some time or other have 
measles, mumps, chickenpox, and whooping cough. 

Now all is changed. We use factory food prod- 
ucts and employ help from the outside. This has in- 
volved and still involves labor problems. We have 
educated our daughters to support themselves out- 
side the home, and that has changed the adminis- 
tration of affairs in home life. We send our very 
young children to the kindergarten, to their "second 
mothers", for their first education, instead of teach- 
ing them their A B C's at home as we used to do. 
Instead of caring for the sick at home, they are 
now sent to the hospitals, and instead of beHeving 
in so-called children's diseases, we know, through 
our study of hygiene, they are not necessary. Many 



30 Practical Food Economy 

other matters of progress show us that the home is 
so closely related with the outside world and its 
interests that it has brought new responsibilities, 
new opportunities, a broader horizon, and wider 
sympathies to women. 

If we are going to keep in this rapidly moving van 
of progress with the least possible friction, we must 
let go of some of the older things which we used in 
this first process of construction, and be ready to 
take the newer and better things when they come. 
It represents not only a matter of greater comfort 
and happiness, but also greater economy. 

I should not like to go on record as saying that 
women do not think. But at any rate they have 
reached the time in this cycle of civilization when, 
if they wish to find expression for all the talents 
with which women believe to-day they are endowed, 
they must think and think intelligently, with con- 
tinuity — logically and truthfully. They must be 
able to decide questions in a perfectly unbiased 
manner, keeping the poise, balance, and dignity of 
womanhood. This is one step toward healthy, 
happy hving in which women may express them- 
selves through the actual doing. 

It has been a popular impression that the knowl- 
edge of good housekeeping and the proper care of 
the children came "naturally" to a woman, when 
she suddenly found herself with both thrust upon 
her, even though she had no previous training for 
this profession. I remember a woman with many 



Preparedness in the Home 31 

years' experience once said to me : "If I could only- 
have heard these home-making talks when I was 
young ! I married and one day suddenly found 
myself with two babies and no helper, and I had 
been educated for everything under the sun but 
the care of babies and a home." 

Very few of us can look back with any particular 
joy at least to the first year of housekeeping. I 
remember how I resented the fact that my husband, 
a lawyer, did not have to change his profession, 
while I, a teacher who loved mine as well as he loved 
his, must give it up and do something for which 
I thought I was not educated. No one had told 
me that this great art of home making and science 
of foods meant the same appHcation of all the peda- 
gogy and system which I had used in my school- 
room. This had to be learned through mistakes and 
discomfort, and even by the shedding of a few tears. 
This is not intended as a resume of my own life and 
experience, but of the life of the average woman who 
enters a home with no special training which fits 
her to do her work efficiently and economically, or 
with the understanding which would enable her to 
give clear ^nd definite instructions as to how it 
should be done. For no woman can expect good 
service or work well done when she can neither do 
it herself, has no idea of the labor or time required 
for its completion, and cannot give definite direc- 
tions for some one else to do it. 

Any one who has physical strength can take care 



32 Practical Food Economy 

of a house, but it takes a woman who thinks and 
thinks broadly to make a home — one who can 
keep the wheels of the machinery running smoothly 
with little or no friction, and have time to take part 
in the big affairs outside where she is needed ; a 
woman who does not neglect the social and play 
side that is an essential part of our everyday Hfe, 
and which more and more must come through the 
work we are e^ngaged in. 

This can only be done by the woman who is able 
to discriminate between essentials and nonessentials, 
just as she chooses the kind of utensils that will do 
the work more quickly and efficiently, instead of 
those knives, potato mashers, and iron kettles which 
mother or grandmother used. 

I know the question of money is in the reader's 
mind, but as women gain a sense of values, they will 
adjust the proportion of money to be spent on foods, 
utensils, and furnishings. The same success which 
has attended every business to which she has applied 
her mind will follow the eifort of the woman in the 
home who realizes that this business of home making 
is worthy of her best mental energy. 

This clear definite thinking in getting right values 
so as to be capable of determining what is real 
economy, gives a woman judgment in the buying of 
everything for her home. She soon learns how to dis- 
criminate, choose and select with thought, no matter 
whether it is furniture or foods. She knows without 
any argument that in her busy useful life many 



Preparedness in the Home 33 

staple goods may be telephoned for, and by going 
to market once or twice a week, she can keep in 
touch with seasonable foods and prices. 

No one need tell any woman she must do it ; just 
get her to think, and she will practice the best 
methods of true economy in both time and labor and 
careful buying, which eliminates all waste in the home. 

Reduce Grocery Bills by Using Seasonable 
Articles 

"Enough is as good as a feast." 

— George Chapman. 

"Gluttony kills more than the sword." 

— Herbert. 

Lessen the size of the garbage can, and in lessening 
the size there is less opportunity for food which is 
usable in many ways to go into it. While we talk a 
great deal about this tremendous subject — the high 
price of food — waste is one of the biggest problems 
in our homes. "Foods seasonable and as reasonable 
in price with value, as our income will allow" should 
be our slogan. We are well aware that with our 
present system of shipping fruits and vegetables 
in perfectly refrigerated cars all over the world, 
they can be delivered quickly to our markets in 
good condition and frequently sold at a price within 
our means. But that requires sensible "market- 
ing", and not the purchase of green corn and to- 
matoes in May, which I see continually at the 



34 Practical Food Economy 

markets where I study our present methods of buy- 
ing. Women must learn the science of buying 
good body-building food and not that for satisfying 
an artificial appetite. 

As a nation, we do not appreciate what the French 
learned long ago — the necessity of "a perfect re- 
spect" for food. When they buy a head of lettuce, 
outside leaves are carefully washed and used for 
greens, soups, or shredded for a salad, and all the 
dainty bits are used in the regulation way. When 
we purchase the same head of lettuce, all the outside 
leaves are stripped off and thrown into the garbage 
can, and this is true also of certain parts of the 
celery, beets, and many other foods grown in our 
country and purchased in the markets which should 
be utilized for soups, greens, or flavorings. Now, 
necessity is making all of us in the United States 
have this same "respect" for food. 

One of the causes of the present prices is cer- 
tainly that of supply and demand, and every woman 
knows that there is greater demand to-day for all 
kinds of foods, in season and out of season, than ever 
before In the history of marketing. If we can learn 
to buy food when In season, and then utilize every 
bit of it to the best advantage, without waste, and 
conserve every part of the food value in cooking, it 
will do much toward lessening the great demand and 
high prices now so prevalent, and at the same time 
give all a chance for their share of food. 

In doing marketing each day, while lecturing in 



Preparedness in the Home 35 

our large cities, I have learned food conditions and 
prices from the buyers of the largest food-supply 
houses in the United States. One November day 
in an eastern market, in the discussion of fresh fruits 
and vegetables — and most of them unseasonable, 
such as asparagus at one dollar a bunch, tomatoes 
fifty cents a pound, peaches, strawberries, alligator 
pears, and others of like kind and prices — I asked, 
"Do you have much complaint on prices?" 
** Never," the proprietor responded. "People do not 
want things these days unless they are unseason- 
able, unusual, and hard to get. They do not ques- 
tion the price." "But how about paying for them .f*" 
I asked. "Oh ! that's easy. We send the bill and 
receive the check." "That may be all right for 
milHonaires," I still persisted; "they can afford to 
spend their money freely and as they choose, but 
how does it affect others that cannot afford it.?" 
Then he opened up his heart and told me what a 
wasteful extravagance it was for some of their cus- 
tomers, whom he knew to have an income of only 
one or two thousand a year, to come into their store 
and insist upon buying this same food, because rare 
and unseasonable, at fabulous prices ; and he said, 
"Between you and me, I would rather have a can of 
that nice asparagus on the shelf than this forced 
hothouse bunch which costs a dollar." 

After all, our living is summed up in knowing 
foods and their body-building value in health and 
strength, education in money values, and enough 



36 Practical Food Economy 

good common sense to know how to spend it, and 
to "pass by" all unseasonable foods which are not 
priced for the family of average incomes. The time 
has come when those with the large income must 
spend it for nutritious foods, and give up luxuries 
which rarely ever contribute to good health. Then 
if we buy wisely and know the relation of heat to 
this food in its cooking, the least expensive dish 
may prove to be an appetizing one for rich or poor. 

Understanding the Gas Range 

There are few housekeepers or cooks who have 
mastered all the details of managing the gas range, 
though the results obtained in cooking and baking 
are easier and cleaner than with either wood or coal. 
To most women a stove is a stove, and there is 
nothing special to learn about it except where to 
turn on the gas and how to light it. They think that 
the higher they turn the flame, the hotter it is, which 
is anything but true. By experience we have found 
that by turning on the gas until a little blue flame is 
reached and no yellow "tips" — which is air — are 
seen, the greatest heat value is attained. Do not 
turn up the flame until it rises to the handles of the 
cooking utensils. The heat is no greater, and it is 
destructive to the saucepans and kettles. It is sur- 
prising what perfect cooking of most foods with no 
watching or anxiety can be done with the flame on the 
gas stove turned as low as possible without going out. 



Preparedness in the Home 37 

. Most women are ready to confess that they do not 
understand their oven. Often we are so busy doing 
things in the kitchen that we forget what is happen- 
ing in the oven. Not enough care has been given 
to the study of the relation of heat to food, which 
is a big item in the finished meal. 

The preparation of food, mixing and material, 
may be perfect, and yet all is ruined in cooking over 
the gas and baking in the oven. Mothers often 
make the mistake of letting the daughters make the 
cake, and then tell them to "run along", and they'll 
watch the baking. The most important part was 
omitted in the daughter's lesson in cake making. 
Here is where our cooking schools are giving our 
daughters an opportunity seldom found at home. 
The girl must study and know the temperature of 
ovens ; she must time all processes, to see how long 
it takes the oven to heat for various purposes ; she 
must also notice the effect of too much heat, and 
will learn that many articles continue cooking or 
baking after the gas is turned off. If the girls are 
learning all this in cooking schools, surely it would 
pay any mother to spend some time in experimenting 
with her own stove. 

One difficulty in the management of a gas stove 
lies in the fact that the pressure and supply of gas 
are not always uniform. Occasionally the supply 
pipe is insufficient for the size of the range, or too 
many are using the gas at one time. This is fre- 
quently noticed in apartments between five and 



38 Practical Food Economy 

seven p.m., when so many dinners are being pre- 
pared all over the city, thus testing the full capacity 
of each stove and of the general supply. 

In some kitchens, where light and heat come from 
the same pipe, it is wiser at times to light the room 
by other means, that the full force of the gas may 
be given to the cooking of the dinner. Women are 
not keen about the mechanical side of housekeeping. 
At a lecture on foods and cookery some years ago, 
when gas was a less common fuel, the teacher turned 
out the light above her head that the full supply of 
gas might come to the kettle of fat in which she was 
about to cook croquettes. One spectator turned to 
her neighbor with a stage whisper, "Why must she 
fry them in the dark.^" There is more than one 
woman to-day to whom processes of cookery with 
the gas stove or other agencies seem invested with 
magic or under control of the powers of darkness. 

The usual gas range has three parts, which may 
be used together or separately — the top burners, 
the baking and broiling ovens. By judicious plan- 
ning, it is seldom necessary to use more than two 
upper burners, and one may often do the work of 
two. The milk for a soup or pudding may be scalded 
over the kettle where potatoes are boiling. The 
kettles made so that two can fit over one burner 
may be helpful, but those of three divisions are less 
desirable. When a kettle represents the third of a 
circle it brings a point directly over the hottest part 
of the flame, and this tends toward inequalities in 



Preparedness in the Home 39 

cooking, if not toward burning on the kettle. For 
a family of six or more a good steam cooker will save 
gas enough to pay for its cost inside of a year, and 
vegetables will be all the better in flavor and there 
will be less waste if cooked by steam. By forethought 
parts of two dinners may be prepared in the cooker. 

A portable oven, Hke those provided for oil or 
small gas stoves, may be used on the top burner of 
a gas range. Here potatoes, a pan of beans, and a 
pie or pudding can be baked at one time, instead of 
heating the larger oven, which would require much 
more fuel. 

The broiler pan provided in the average gas range 
is a delusion to the small family. It is too large and 
clumsy to handle and difficult to wash. It may serve 
as a rack in which to set a smaller pan, however. A 
long, narrow tin or a perforated pie pan, which holds 
the required number of chops or sections of fish or 
beefsteak (not a full porterhouse) may be used under 
one row of burners, and the broiling thus be accom- 
plished twice as well with half the gas. Have the 
iron above well heated at first and place any meat as 
close to the flame as is safe, sear it thoroughly and 
turn and sear the other side, then move farther away 
from the flame or turn it low. Thus the heat will 
penetrate and cook the center without burning the 
outside ; or heat will have accumulated in the upper 
oven, and the gas may be turned out, and the fish, 
flesh, or fowl placed in that moderate temperature 
to finish. 



40 Practical Food Economy 

In conclusion, when the oven does not bake on 
top or burns on the bottom, or anything else is wrong 
with the gas range, let me urge women to take their 
troubles at once to the gas man, or the one from 
whom the stove was purchased. They are only too 
glad and willing to remedy the difficulty. It is 
worse than wasted energy, besides a tremendous 
waste of good food, to try to cook and bake under 
such unsatisfactory conditions. 

Cooking by Electricity 

When attending a recent Woman's Industrial Ex- 
hibition, I wondered if there was really anything in 
the world that was not for woman, or that she did 
not have something to do with, either in the making 
or disposition of, in the home. We surely have 
passed the age when women's hands lie idly in their 
laps, for the rugs we saw woven, the dresses and 
bonnets made, the marmalades, jams, and jellies, 
candies, the work by children, and the cooking, all 
showed evidence of woman's work. 

A model municipal terminal market, designed by a 
woman, helped solve the economic wastes in trans- 
portation and distribution of foods, and since this 
exposition, this wonderful municipal market has 
been completed and is in operation. 

The center of vital interest to both men and 
women, however, was the "kitchen de luxe", where 
all the cooking and operating of utensils was done 



Preparedness in the Home 41 

by the faithful and ready servant, electricity. It 
was a kitchen and dining room combined, which 
seemed quite the proper thing, as this method of 
cooking by electricity is so clean and the arrange- 
ment of the kitchen was so orderly and attractive 
there really seemed no necessity for separating these 
two rooms, which are so closely linked together. 

As I had cooked for several years entirely by 
electricity in my own home (and still use it with 
reasonable economy as compared with other fuel), I 
Was naturally interested in what was being cooked 
at this exhibition. There was no question in the 
minds of every one who watched these Domestic 
Science instructors cooking with such accuracy, 
comfort, ease, and real enjoyment, that some day 
when they "could afford it", they too would be able 
to solve through electric cooking the "help" and 
many other problems. 

Most of us have become familiar with the smaller 
appliances operated by electricity, and it would be 
a sad move backward if the electric iron, vacuum 
cleaner, grill, toaster, chafing dish, percolator, and 
washing machine were taken from the home, and 
women had to resort to old methods, less efficient and 
requiring greater labor than these appliances operated 
by electricity. Yes ! They have come to stay ! 

But the real help which women have needed has 
been a good economical electric stove. It has been 
my good fortune to use one — which is a combina- 
tion of gas, electricity, and fireless — for several 



42 Practical Food Economy 

years at my own home and when lecturing in various 
cities, and my conclusions are : 

First, that baking can only be done with economy 
of food, fuel, and time by having a definite heat in- 
dicator on the oven door. Food is only digestible 
and serves its purpose if it is cooked just long enough^ 
and at neither too high nor too low heat. This testing 
of the oven then is most important, in that, with 
such a thermometer and insulated oven, we may know 
exact temperature when food should go into the oven 
and when it should be removed for perfect baking. 

Second, this stove which we used and which is 
illustrated here, automatically cuts off the current 
when just the right heat is reached, and baking 
continues, with no cost, on retained heat. Very 
often I have cooked my cereals and evaporated 
fruits in the oven on the retained heat after the bak- 
ing is finished for dinner. Of course, this requires 
thinking and planning, but no successful business 
can succeed without system, planning, and definite 
thinking. 

Third, this kind of accurate, sure baking certainly 
must and will, more and more in the future, play a 
large part in the release of women from work which 
at times seems endless. Their time must be profit- 
ably employed in the home and out of it. They 
must study social problems of the day, if they are 
to be of the greatest service to humanity and their 
country, and more time also must be given for train- 
ing and living with their children. But all this great 



Preparedness in the Home 43 

good can only come to the woman who will use 
or direct the use of electric cooking with economy. 
But if once used, you will say with me, "I can never 
cook without it," for it means economy of. food, 
time, and labor; besides it means better foods and 
a healthier present and coming generation. 

Stocking the Kitchen 

"The entire object of true education is to make people not 
merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things — not 
merely industrious, but to love industry — not merely learned, 
but to love knowledge — not merely pure, but to love purity 
— not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice." 

— John Ruskin. 

It may sound rather commonplace to write of 
replenishing housekeeping conveniences and utensils 
when wearing apparel and other fascinating things 
for the wardrobe are beckoning us from every store 
window, as well as from the enticing advertisements 
in the newspapers and magazines. It takes good 
judgment and balance in every woman to buy the 
clothes best suited in quality, quantity, and style 
(never fashion) for her own or her family's particular 
needs. It also takes the same good judgment to 
replenish or restock the house equipment. Spring 
or fall seems to be one of the times when we must 
take account of our stock in both clothes and the 
appliances which help to make the wheels of the 
housekeeping machinery run quickly and with the 
fewest possible jars or setbacks. 



44 Practical Food Economy 

We know better, in our profession of home making, 
than to "just get along" with whatever we happen 
to have in utensils for cooking our food, or for keep- 
ing the house clean and in order. We have learned 
through experience and education that there is as 
close a relationship between the food and the right 
utensils, and the house and the right working ap- 
pliances, as there is between a picture and the correct 
brushes used in painting it, our home and the exact 
tools for certain work in building it. 

More than this, there has never been a time in the 
history of our lives when the manufacturer and the 
home have been as close together in thought along 
these Hnes as now — one creating and the other de- 
manding. The one creating stands ready to give us 
just what we demand — if we know what utensils 
are for, and their use in the kitchen or any other part 
of the house. 

For instance, a delicate sauce or cream soup may 
be scorched or underdone when made in a saucepan, 
with all the other cooking and the setting of table 
coming at the same time, whereas with a double 
boiler all anxiety is eHminated, and with most sauces 
the quality is far superior. Eggs cooked in a thin 
skillet heat and cook too rapidly for quality or diges- 
tion, while in a cast spider the heat can be well regu- 
lated. The shrinkage of meats in an open pan in 
the oven is twenty-five per cent, greater than in a 
covered roaster, unless in an insulated or fireless oven. 

These are only a few illustrations of the actual 




A Convenient Grouping of Utensils Near the Kitchen 
Range. 



y7^— S^^.r' •.?^^:^?;'??55r;?f=^ff^rB^5^g?sJ'.«'=T»s?T/er"'^^^g»«=7'','? 




Small Utensils Within Easy Reach, 



Preparedness in the Home 45 

necessity for having the right utensils for getting 
good results in flavor, food value, and economy. A 
woman once said to me : ''When I married, I wanted 
to go into the kitchen and cook, and my husband 
had not expected me to do it. However, when he 
saw I was anxious to learn, he said, 'Have every- 
thing you need to do your work easily, economically, 
and well.' I did, without spending much money or 
having too many utensils. I used care and discrim- 
ination in the selection, and I have made it the 
pleasure of my life." 

Every woman can do the same by thinking out, as 
she works, which utensil is most practical and use- 
ful, discarding as soon as she can afford it the one 
which is not, and informing herself, before going 
to buy, on the best in material, shapes, handles, 
sizes, etc., in relation to the work expected of such 
utensils. 

If it is aluminum — which is light, lasting, and 
attractive — don't expect it to look as bright after 
use as when on the shelves in the shop any more than 
you would expect an automobile to look the same 
after being driven all day as when it left the show 
window. Learn something about aluminum and 
how to keep it clean, and know that cleanliness is 
all that is essential to keep it perfect for use. 

Surely a woman who is alive and thinking to-day 
is not using pots and pans — either heavy to handle 
or hard to wash. Who would use an iron spider, 
which is heavy and porous, absorbing grease and 



46 Practical Food Economy 

odors of all foods which have ever been cooked in 
it, when a light aluminum one is on sale in every 
house-furnishing department and is much more 
attractive to look at, besides being perfectly sani- 
tary for cooking purposes ? 

Employ in the kitchen, as in other parts of the 
house, a process of elimination rather than accumu- 
lation. Think of the useless utensils in drawers and 
on pantry shelves which are never used. Either 
find out if they are perfectly useless (and, if so, 
relegate them to the waste basket), or use them. 
There are too many tools lying around the " working 
laboratory" of the home which make extra work to 
handle and do not add to the efficiency engineering 
of the home or housekeeping. 

This is just the time to mend our ways in these 
respects, at the beginning of the season, when we do 
more or less rearranging and reorganizing in our 
homes in the spring or after the relaxation of the hot 
summer months. The very best way is for the 
woman in the home to study easy methods of work ; 
and, when she sees or — while working — thinks of 
a labor-saving or any necessary new utensil, make a 
note of it. Then, at various times, one or more may 
be purchased, and the extra expense will hardly be 
noticed. 

Another thing which will help in this readjustment 
is the selection of utensils which will answer several 
purposes. For instance, suppose a new roaster is 
necessary ; an aluminum one may cost a little more 



Preparedness in the Home 47 

at the time, but It means two baking pans Instead 
of one, as the cover is a real pan. Fruit may be 
canned In It by standing jars on the rack; then, 
with plenty of boIHng water In the pan — over a 
fire or In the oven, or fire turned out entirely and 
the roaster covered — the fruit Is canned by the 
steam process. The bread mixer Is not only useful 
and necessary for bread making, but is fine for mix- 
ing fruit cakes and plum puddings. 

Who would mash potatoes the old hard way, when 
a fruit press or potato ricer will do it better In one 
fourth the time, with much less effort, besides press- 
ing juice from fruits ? While abroad one year, our 
butter was served in pretty shell-Hke forms. I was 
sure they were made with a butter curler which I 
knew was being sold In our own home city, as I had 
one in my possession at least a year before going 
abroad ; so I managed In Paris to have the utensil 
brought me for Inspection, and, sure enough. It was 
the same. Many women were purchasing them and 
bringing them home to America, thinking them 
novelties. The newest and best things are all here 
in our house-furnishing stores, attractive and use- 
ful, awaiting your selection. But do not forget 
the elimination process before you begin to buy 
the newest tools ; then use them and take care of 
them. 

The old saying surely is a great help, "A place for 
everything and everything in its place," and — we 
might add — "the proper use for everything." 



48 Practical Food Economy 

Elements of Everyday Food 

''"Those who live on the mountain have a longer day than 
those who live in the valley. Sometimes all we need to brighten 
our day is to rise a little higher." 

— Ella Flagg Young. 

Every woman, we feel sure, is quite ready for a 
more complete, definite chemical knowledge of the 
balance of foods in her daily purchases. For every 
living thing there is a "right kind" of food, without 
which disease sets in or it dies. Every child who 
has kept chickens, rabbits, or pets of any kind, 
knows how carefully, regularly, and how much of 
the right quality of food they must have. Every 
child who has grown house plants or cultivated a 
garden knows how necessary air, soil, and water are 
for the growth of the plants. 

It is only necessary to apply this knowledge to 
ourselves to see that we, as living human beings, 
need our food in the same way, and that air, sun- 
shine, and water — as well as meat (or its substi- 
tutes) and milk, sugars, and starches — are our foods, 
without which we cannot live. If young boys and 
girls could be taught these things during their child- 
hood, by the time they were grown up, "keeping 
well", not "getting well", and a better understand- 
ing of their bodies would be the result. 

Mrs. Ellen Richards has written in one of her 
valuable books on foods : "The baby's food is milk, 
which contains all the substances needed except 



Preparedness in the Home 49 

oxygen of the air. This must be breathed in through 
the lungs. To milk is added for the child of two 
years, starch in various forms — rice, potatoes, 
wheat bread, corn mush, etc. For the six-year-old 
there are added a few fruits and vegetables, eggs, 
and a very little meat. The youth of twelve to 
fifteen years takes with profit all kinds of food, if 
it is well cooked and not in the form of soggy bread, 
or greasy, fried things. The young person from 
eighteen to twenty-five has a digestion which even 
the worst cooking does not always spoil, but there 
is even then a risk in overtaxing willing stomachs, 
for bad effects may not be manifest for many years." 
With this very simple outline for young and old, 
experienced or inexperienced, we give below a table 
of the everyday foods, which should be used for fre- 
quent reference, as it has taken scientists many 
years to acquire what they consider only the slightest 
knowledge of foods. From their continuous study, 
however, it is being made easier for the average 
home maker to have a clearer understanding of the 
purpose of foods. 

Proteins or Muscle Builders. Beef, lean pork, mutton, 
lamb, veal, poultry, game, milk, eggs, fish (better dried), 
with substitutes such as dried beans, peas, lentils, and 
thick nutritious soups, which include milk and egg yolks. 

Carbohydrates or Fuels. These include starches and 
sweets. 

Starches. Potatoes, rice, macaroni, spaghetti, cooked 
prepared cereals, breads (especially from white flour), 



50 Practical Food Economy 

bananas, cocoa, cornstarch, tapioca in puddings, and others 
which may with understanding and thought be easily re- 
lated to these. 

Sweets. Honey, candy, cakes, frostlngs, preserves, 
jellies, jams, sugar, cookies, very sweet puddings, stewed 
fruits, maple sirups, and many other recognized sweets. 

Fats — Energy Foods. Fat ham, pork, bacon, fat fish, 
some kinds of sausage, cream, butter, cream soups, cream 
cheese, olive and peanut oil, ripe olives, mayonnaise and 
other salad dressings, gravies, sauces, pastry, most nuts, 
sweet chocolate, ice cream, parfalts, and all Bavarian 
creams. 

Minerals and Acids — Blood Purifiers. Cabbage, 
celery, radishes, cucumbers, tomatoes, egg-plant, spinach, 
dandelions, and all greens cooked or used fresh in salads, 
prunes, figs, rhubarb, and all dried and fresh fruits. 

Bulky Foods and Cleansers. Coarse bran and whole 
wheat breads, woody vegetables, coarse cereals, and all 
bran foods. 

Liquids — Dissolvents. Pure water, stock and milk 
soups, buttermilk, skimmed milk, fruit juices and similar 
drinks, gelatines, watery fruits and vegetables. 



CHAPTER II 
MEATS 

Our New Partnership 

"All things in life, arranged according to System, will fall 
into line and serve us, if our wills are strong enough and our 
purpose sufficiently steady." 

— Selected. 

The home makers of our country have formed 
their first big business partnership for putting their 
homes on a financial and economic basis so that our 
own people may be well nourished and plenty saved 
for war purposes. 

Our new partner is Herbert C. Hoover, and we 
are asked by him to become actual members of the 
food administration for conservation and elimina- 
tion of all waste of which he is the head in the 
United States. 

There is only one way to win in any partnership, 
and that is to find out what the organization is work- 
ing for and then, with united effort, work together 
until the goal has been reached. "Here's our hand, 
Mr. Hoover; you have our willing cooperation in 
all you ask." 

51 



52 Practical Food Economy 

If I may presume to do so, I should like to add 
one more principle to the following instructions from 
him, and that is this: "We will never miss an op- 
portunity to help others in this food conservation, 
by giving encouragement to women or actual help, 
when needed, in food economy, marketing, care of 
food in the home, or by passing on to them the best 
methods known in cooking, whenever and wherever 
we see an opportunity to do so." 

No great deeds were ever accompHshed without 
personal sacrifice, and we are ready. 

The general principles of instruction given by Mr. 
Hoover are as follows : 

"First. To save the wheat. If we eat as usual 
from our harvest this year, we will have little more 
than enough for our own supply, but we can divide 
with our allies if each individual makes some sacri- 
fice — by eating at least one wheatless meal a day, 
substituting corn bread or other cereals. 

Second. We want to save the meat, for our cattle 
and hogs are decreasing, and we must send to our 
allies, so we wish every householder to buy less, to 
serve smaller portions, and to allow no waste. 

Third. We wish to save the fats. We consume 
three times the fats that are necessary for nutrition, 
and we need them now for war. We wish no butter 
used in cooking ; we want less butter served on the 
table; we want less lard, bacon, and other pork 
products used. 

Fourth. Any deficiencies In food supply, by 



Meats 53 

economy along the above lines, can be amply covered 
by increasing the use of fish, potatoes, beans, peas, 
turnips, cabbages, and vegetables generally, corn, 
buckwheat, rye, and rice, which we will have in 
abundance this harvest. 

Fifth. We want to save transportation. Our 
railways are unable to meet the war pressure for 
munitions, men, and coal, so that we wish every 
one to consume products of local origin so far as 
possible, to buy from the local miller, the local 
packer, buy and eat vegetables grown near home. 

Sixth. We preach and want every one to preach 
the gospel of the clean plate ; to buy less foodstuffs, 
to serve smaller portions, and to see that nothing of 
value goes into the garbage can. 

Aside from eating an increased proportion of these 
commodities in order to save on the staples, it is 
extremely Important that any surplus of these com- 
modities shall be preserved or well stored for winter 



Economy in Meat Buying 

Scientific Cooking and Care in Cuts Solve High 
Cost Problem 

The scientific cooking of meat In America is still 
in its infancy. The methods used have been the 
ones handed down from our grandmothers, or those 
devised by unskilled cooks, neither one of which is 
likely to lead to great advancement. 



54 Practical Food Economy 

In its higher development, the cooking has fol- 
lowed the English method of bringing out the flavor 
inherent in the meat, and this method has been 
more or less successful because our supply comes from 
an abundance of well-fed, well-matured animals ; 
but cooking to preserve flavor and all nutritive 
value is our main point of consideration. From an 
economical standpoint, it is absolutely essential to 
know just how many ounces of our roast are lost in 
the cooking. Manufacturers are very much alive 
to this detail in building new ovens. Only recently 
I spent a week in one of the largest factories in our 
city, testing a new stove with additional improve- 
ments for conserving the heat, food value, and weight 
in foods. Very accurate and complete records were 
made of every kind of food which went into this 
oven, and I must confess to great surprise when 
we found we had lost only three ounces in a leg of 
lamb in the roasting. 

The digestibiUty of meat is not dependent upon 
the cut of meat. A cut of meat from the shoulder 
digests about as readily and completely as one from 
the loin, the difference being too small to be con- 
sidered. But the flavor, the digestibility, and the 
shrinkage of meat are dependent upon right cooking. 

My experiments were undertaken with the Inten- 
tion of studying the composition of the different 
cuts of meat from the housekeeper's standpoint, to 
determine what cuts will furnish the greatest amount 
of edible meat for a given amount of money. They 



Meats 55 

are based entirely upon results obtained by ac- 
curate weighings. The cooked meat has not been 
chemically analyzed, and hence its nutritive value 
is not here discussed. 

No unusual fuel or utensils were used for the tests 
but those which would be practical for everyday 
use in the home. But very accurate records were 
made in the cooking of various cuts with these con- 
clusions based on the study of the results. 

First. The highest percentage of edible meat 
was obtained from the beef loaf. Loaf made from 
neck and chuck was a cent or two cheaper than that 
made from plate and flank. 

Second. The amount of waste fat was small in 
the beef loaf, because a large amount of it was 
held in the loaf by the added ingredients, making 
the fat become edible meat. This made the total 
cost per pound of edible meat lower than in any 
other cut, even at the same price for the butcher's 
weight. 

Third. Braised round — practically no loss in 
cooking. 

Fourth. Boiled rib — too much loss in wasted 
fat, unless this fat is saved for other cooking. 

Fifth. Rib roast — fine meats at average price. 
Chuck roast — highest percentage of edible meat, 
but not so fine in flavor, unless as carefully cooked, 
as loin roasts. 

Sixth. Porterhouse roast or steak most expensive, 
with loss in waste of fat and ends of meat. 



56 Practical Food Economy 

Seventh. The loss by evaporation is greater in 
lean meats and less in fat meats, and greater in small 
cuts than in large ones. 

Eighth. Long cooking increases the loss by evapo- 
ration of water, and the loss of fat, unless iireless 
or casserole cooking is used. 

The conclusion is that the juiciness of meat and 
flavor seem to be directly proportioned according 
to the amount of fat it contains and the nutritive 
value and care in cooking. 

BRAISED BEEF 

Braised beef, when well cooked, is tender and 
appetizing. Select a piece weighing five or six 
pounds from rump or cross rib. Wipe and trim. 
Line the braising pan with thin slices of fat salt 
pork, and over this sprinkle two tablespoonfuls 
each of chopped carrot, onion, white turnip, and 
celery. On this place the meat and dredge with 
salt and pepper. Pour round it a pint of stock or 
water, and cover and cook in a moderate oven, 
allowing half an hour for each pound of meat. Un- 
cover for the last half hour and quicken the heat 
that the meat may slightly brown. To serve with 
it take half a cupful of freshly grated horse-radish. 
Put in a double boiler with one cupful and a half 
of milk, two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs, one 
tablespoonful of butter, salt and pepper to taste, 
and cook for fifteen minutes. 



Meats 



57 



The Fore Quarter of Beef 

The confusing thing to the average woman in 
seeing the various cuts of beef pictured in the whole 
animal, is to recognize the animal or the cuts when 
divided and shown her by her butcher in the meat 



TENDERLOIN 



FORB oji^sifn 




market. So we have thought best to eliminate the 
head and only take the fore quarter for study, with 
the cuts and names used for them generally. 

The meat arrives in the shop divided first in 
halves from head to tail and then into quarters, 
known as hind and fore quarters. Better buy only 
from the fore quarter until thoroughly familiar with 



58 Practical Food Economy 

the cuts, then later take the hind quarter in the 
same manner. 

Before studying the buying of cuts, one should 
know the value of meat as a food. Its value lies in 
the protein, which is necessary for the renewal of 
muscle and tissue building of the body. If taken 
in too great quantities, twice or three times a day, 
where the individual is not engaged in active or out- 
door work, protein cannot all be used in the build- 
ing process, and consequently remains in the body 
and forms decay, resulting in such diseases as rheu- 
matism, hardening of the arteries, and weakening 
of the kidneys, by giving them too much work to 
do. Remember that we live and are healthy on 
what we digest, regardless of what we eat. 

There are many other foods supplying this protein 
besides the beef, and every day we should have it 
in some form or other, such as nuts, cheese, poultry, 
game, pork, lamb, mutton, milk, eggs, fish, dried 
peas, beans, and lentils. These need not necessarily 
come on the table in one dish, but be distributed as 
a sweet, salad, entree, or soup, and can still retain 
the title of "protein." Do not duplicate this in 
several dishes, however, at the same meal, which 
so frequently happens, as, for instance, a "first or 
second cut" from the "prime ribs" in the fore 
quarter as illustrated, rich in protein, preceded with 
a cream soup, rich in milk (protein), and followed 
with custard pie, both eggs and milk, very largely 
protein. The proper balancing of meals and plan- 



U.S. Department of Agriculture 

States Relations Service 

A.C.Truei Director 



Reared by 

CFLANGWORTHY 

Chief, Office of Home Economics 



COBAPOSITION OF FOOD MATERIALS. 



Fat 



cm 

Water 



F[ie\ Value 
9 So. In. Equals 



LAMB CHOP 

EDIBLE PORTION 



1006 Calories 

PORK CHOP 



Fat:30.1 




SlOcALORIES 
PER POUND 



Meats 59 

ning of the daily menus means much, and it is the 
most vital and educative part of all the cooking for 
any woman, whether she actually prepares the meal 
or not. 

Some Government statistics might be useful here. 
"There are twenty million families in the United 
States, and one million out* of the twenty have one 
maid or more in their homes." 

So the very large majority of women in the home 
must be intelligent regarding foods and their values, 
for the health of their families, and the small mi- 
nority should know so they can direct those in their 
employ, who are rarely trained in the chemistry of 
foods. , 

I Study these cuts in the fore quarter. Know prices 
and quality. Never use the expensive cuts when 
the "brisket", "shoulder", and "chuck" will an- 
swer as well. Know the cost, their place on your 
table and in your allowance. On days when at 
home cook the cheaper cuts, which require more 
preparation and attention and slower cooking, but 
consider time, labor, and fuel in so doing. While 
they have the same nutritive value, they must be 
perfectly cooked and attractively served to compete 
with the more choice and expensive cuts of meats, 
which are delicate in flavor and cooked with less 
labor, time, and fueL 

The thinking woman of to-day realizes that 
economy in prices of meats rests largely with her 
knowledge in buying, preparing, and cooking. 



60 



Practical Food Economy 



The Hind Quarter of Beef 

This cut or quarter of the animal may not be 
quite as interesting to study as the fore quarter, 
with all its prime rib cuts for roasts, but it is very 
valuable from an economic standpoint, as there is 
Hiwo Q.. much solid meat in 

^~^**'^*"~- — - it and not so much 
waste in bone. 

If the cut of the 
fore quarter and this 
be placed together, 
the animal as a whole 
will be easily recog- 
nized, but it is never 
seen as such in the 
market, being shown 
only as in the given 
illustrations. 

The main thing to remember in cooking these 
meats is that, when using cuts from loin and of fine 
texture, a quick, hot heat is desirable; when using 
the meats of coarser texture, such as shoulder, rump, 
round, and flank, more time is necessary and slower 
heat, as the fiber in this type of meat can only be 
made tender by the process of slow cooking. 

The kidney is encased in plenty of fat or suet, 
which Is used in puddings ; when heated until a 
liquid fat is produced, it may be used for cooking. 
The flank is back of the ribs and below the loin, and 




Meats 61 

makes a good steak, in which a pocket is cut, filled 
with dressing, baked slowly, and with plenty of 
moisture. The top sirloin is really the thick flank, 
and is used for pot roasts. Extending to the hip 
joint are the fine prime cuts of beef, and both 
flavor and tenderness are found here. The porter- 
house steaks are such as long as they contain the 
loin. 

The Delmonico or Club steak is the best steak for 
the family of two or three, but for planking there is 
nothing quite so fine as the porterhouse or sirloin, 
with the bone removed. The tenderloin is often 
used separately as a whole or cut in fillets, larded to 
supply the fat, and broiled or baked with vegetables 
for flavor, basting often. 

The rump is usually used as the brisket for corning, 
but occasionally for a roast. The reader will see 
there is much bone, but it is fat ; and if a large roast 
can be used, it makes a tender, well-flavored, and 
economical purchase. The round is well known by 
most women, but they do not always know of the 
top and bottom cuts, the latter being the outside of 
the thigh, which is not so fine or juicy as the top 
cut nearer the bone. 

Again, we repeat, care must be used in cooking 
those meats which are more muscular and coarse ; 
the best cuts may be used for steaks. *' Steak a la 
minute", which is cut very thin and served with a 
brown sauce, is from one of the best round cuts, and 
is very popular in hotels and restaurants. Pot 



62 Practical Food Economy 

roasts a la mode, corning, and beef tea are other 
ways for using the round. 

The shin on the fore quarter, and the leg and tail 
on the hind quarter are used, with pieces from the 
neck, and also veal, for soups. The bone is always 
used with soup meat. 

After studying these cuts, supplement this knowl- 
edge with personal marketing, and through questions 
asked your meat dealer, great saving and better 
meats must surely be the result. 

HAMBURG LOAF 

I pound Hamburg steak i onion (grated) 

1 cup cooked rice Season with salt, pepper, 

2 cups tomatoes and chopped parsley 

Utensils. Loaf pan, roasting pan, measuring cup, 
grater. 

Directions. Mix all well together and press into 
a wet pan to shape the loaf. Turn out into a baking 
pan, sprinkle with buttered bread or cracker crumbs, 
and bake one hour. Baste, if necessary. Serve hot 
or cold. 

SHORT RIBS OF BEEF 

Have your butcher cut the short ribs 2J inches 
wide. Proceed to boil as for boiled chuck, only 
giving three quarters of an hour of cooking. Drain 
well, sear in hot drippings to a golden brown, set in 
an earthen pot with the vegetables, and put to cook 
in the oven with the vegetables around them. Don't 
forget the bay leaf, pepper corn, and cloves, as 



Meats 63 

they give the necessary aroma. Moisten with the 
broth every once in a while when nearly done and 
add some small raw potatoes so they will brown 
with the short ribs. When done, skim for future 
use all fat that will rise to the surface, and serve. 

BEEF A LA MODE 

4 pounds beef J teaspoonful black pepper 

I teaspoonful cinnamon J teaspoonful grated nutmeg 

J teaspoonful cloves 2 teaspoonfuls salt 

I teaspoonful allspice S tablespoonfuls vinegar 

I quart boiling water 

iltensils. Covered baking pan,' measuring spoon, 
tablespoon, sharp knife, measuring cup, bowl. 

Directions. Select the meat from the fleshy part 
of the shoulder, the bolar piece, or four pounds from 
the under round, being careful to have it thick and 
short. Mix in a bowl all the spices and pepper. 
Make deep cuts in the meat with a sharp knife and 
sprinkle well into these cuts the spices, also rubbing 
well over the top. Stand in a dish and moisten on 
all sides with the vinegar and let stand in the re- 
frigerator overnight. These slashes may be filled 
with any bread dressing, salt pork, or finely chopped 
vegetables. Tie the meat firmly together to hold 
its shape with strips of muslin about an inch wide ; 
put into the covered baking pan, add the salt and 
boiling water, and cook in a moderate oven four 
hours ; or if you have a moderate fire and do not 
wish to heat the oven, cook slowly on top of the 



64 Practical Food Economy 

stove, basting often and turning twice. This may 
also be cooked in the iireless cooker. It is a very 
good warm-weather meat dish, as it can be served 
hot one day, sliced cold the next, and made up into 
a meat salad or ragout to finish. The spices pre- 
serve the meat so that it keeps well in warm weather. 

FLANK STEAK 

4 cups bread crumbs i turnip (white) 

I teaspoonful salt i carrot 

J cup chopped celery ends i onion 

I tablespoonful parsley, chopped 2 peppers 

Utensils. Baking pan or casserole ; measuring 
cup, grater, vegetable knife, meat board, bowl. 

Directions. Wipe the steak clean with a damp 
cloth ; remove the skin and fat, and lay flat on the 
board to spread with the bread crumbs ; wet with 
water or stock, salt, pepper, chopped parsley, celery 
(or onion if preferred). Roll and tie up well. Slice 
the vegetables and lay in bottom of pan; on top 
lay the meat and pour in enough stock or water to 
cover the pan one inch. Cover and place in a very 
slow oven three hours. If baked uncovered, it 
must be basted often. 

DINNER 

StufFed Flank Steak 

Browned Potatoes — Tomato Catsup 

Water Cress or Lettuce Salad 

Peach Shortcake 

Coffee 



Meats 65 

STUFFED ROUND STEAK WITH RICE AND TOMATO 
DRESSING 

Take a round steak, cut J inch thick, wipe, trim 
edges, pound on both sides. Spread dressing, tie into 
compact shape. Dredge with flour, melt a little suet 
in small dripping pan on the top of stove, and quickly 
brown steak on all sides. Slice onion and place on 
bottom of pan, pour over J cup boiling water. Place 
steak on this. Cover closely and cook in oven from 
one to two hours. Serve with liquid which has been 
thickened in pan. 

RICE AND TOMATO DRESSING 

1 cup cooked rice | cup peanuts chopped 

2 cups soft bread crumbs f teaspoonful paprika 
I cup tomatoes drained | teaspoonful salt 

BAKED HAM HASH 

l| cups chopped ham i cup milk 

2 cups cooked potatoes 2 tablespoonfuls chopped onion 

I cup celery 4 tablespoonfuls green peppers 

Salt and pepper or paprika 

Utensils. Chopping bowl and knife or food chop- 
per, measuring cup, tablespoon, and heavy frying 
pan. 

Directions. The ham and potatoes should be 
chopped, not too fine; then add all the remaining 
ingredients. Put a tablespoonful of vegetable fat, 
or butter, into the spider, and turn the ingredients 
into it. Cover and bake in moderate oven for half 



66 Practical Food Economy 

an hour. When ready to serve, cut in half, as you 
would an omelet, fold, and serve plain or with a 
tomato sauce or poached eggs. This can easily be 
prepared, by having things ready, in half an hour's 
time, as it is understood the ham and potatoes are 
both cooked. Also this can all be prepared several 
hours before cooking, except putting in milk; then 
it can be put into the oven and baked the required 
time. 

FRIED SALT PORK 

Salt pork sliced 2 tablespoonfuls fat 

1 tablespoonful flour i cup milk 

2 tablespoonfuls corn meal i^ cups diced boiled potatoes 

Salt and pepper 

Utensils. Frying pan, measuring cup, measuring 
spoon, tablespoon, knife. 

Directions. Cut the salt pork in thin slices, gash 
the rinds crosswise so the slices will not curl. Par- 
boil and drain. Dip the sHces in two parts corn meal 
and one of flour mixed, and put back to fry in the 
pan. Turn frequently until crisp and brown. 
Remove to a hot platter. 

Drain off all the fat but two tablespoonfuls, and 
the same of flour, mix well and gradually add milk, 
salt, pepper, and the potatoes ; then pour around 
the pork. Serve corn bread with this dish. 

For a change, brown twice the amount of 
flour for thickening gravy, which gives color and 
flavor. 



Meats 



67 



CHEAPER MEAT SUBSTITUTES OR ALTERNATIVES 





Protein Equivalents Equal to 
I Pound of Lean Beef 






Food Material 






Bkt.ative 
Cost 


Calorie 


In Weight 
Pounds 


In Measure 


Value 


Walnuts (in shell) . 


4 




$1.00 


3,400 


Chocolate .... 


i^ 


i\ cake 


.60 


4,173 


Fowl (as purchased) . 


li 


\-\ average sized 


.38 


952 


Tuna Fish (canned) . 


^ 


I large can 


•35 


500 


Egg5 


a 


I dozen 


.34 


969 


Salmon (canned) . . 


I 


I large can 


•30 


654 


Sardines (canned) . 


3 

4= 


3f cans (3I ounces 
each) 


•30 


757 


Mackerel (salt) . . 


if 




.28 


1,554 


Meat (lean beef) . . 


I 


4 average servings 


.28 


652 


Cheese (American) . 


f 




.24 


1,342 


Milk (whole, 4% fat) 


sf 


2f quarts 


.24 


1,860 


Macaroni (dry) . . 


If 


2\ boxes 


.23 


2,348 


Peanuts (in shell) 


I 




.20 


1,870 


Herring (smoked) 


I 




.20 


731 


Lima Beans (dry) . 


I 


2f cups 


.18 


1,701 


Cottage Cheese . . 


9 

ro 


if cups 


.18 


463 


Codfish (salt) . 




1 




.16 


361 


Bread . . . 




i^ 


2 small loaves 


•15 


1,699 


Hominy (dry) 




2i 


5 cups 


.14 


3,763 


Peas (dried) . 




f 


i| cups 


.11 


1,267 


Corn Meal . . 




IT^^ 


5I cups 


.10 


3,094 


Oatmeal . . 




li 


7 cups 


.07-. 10 


2,178 


Milk (skimmed) 




5tV 


2f quarts 


.065 


958 


Soy Beans (dry) 




h 


I cup 


.015 


652 



^ From Chart of Ohio Branch Council of National Defense Agri- 
culture. 



68 Practical Food Economy 

Nuts and Cheese of Meat Value 

"Throughout the year, why not keep sweet ? No frown ever 
made a heart glad; no complaint ever made a dark day bright; 
no bitter word ever Hghtened a burden or made a rough road 
smooth; no grumbKng ever introduced sunshine into a home. 
What the world needs is the resolute step, the look of cheer, 
the smiling countenance and the kindly word. Keep sweet!'* 

— George L. Perin. 

Nuts and cheese both have great food value. They 
also have the advantage of being Hked by almost 
every one, young and old. They give greater variety 
in our menus. Some one has said, "The tendency of 
the housekeeper is to fall into ruts, and we all know 
that ruts, whether for carriages, automobiles or for 
the wheels of our brains, are easy to get into but hard 
to get out of." Our main rut is basing our menus 
around a meat course rather than varying it with 
equally good substitutes. 

Both of the above-mentioned foods have good keep- 
ing qualities and are always ready for emergencies. 
Nuts are found in some variety in nearly every part 
of the world, so it does seem as though the all-wise 
Providence planned that they should be used for food, 
from the inexpensive peanut to those higher priced. 

Nuts are not fully appreciated as a standard food 
except by those who have discarded meat entirely. 
They contain a goodly amount of protein, besides 
being well balanced in the other elements. As meats 
tend to produce old age conditions, one of the first 
steps in scientific living should be to cultivate the 



Meats 69 

habit of eating nuts occasionally in later years instead 
of meat. Nuts serve a better purpose if served natu- 
rally, taken from the shells as they are eaten, than 
when cooked. It is restful and poetic to linger over a 
plate of nuts and fresh fruit. When nut meats are 
served alone they are often eaten too rapidly, and 
too many are indulged in. Nuts are rich in fat, 
and, being condensed food, must be eaten in modera- 
tion and be well masticated. Eight or a dozen 
medium sized nuts are enough for a meal with other 
food. Children should not be allowed to eat all 
the nuts they can at one time, as is so often done, 
because they have been classed with sweetmeats. 
Nuts may enter into many combinations after being 
ground, chopped, or crushed. Dishes in which nuts 
are used should be baked very quickly before the 
nuts become heated through, or the first heat should 
be lowered to 200° F., as soon as the material is hot, 
and the baking continued slowly. Nuts may be 
blanched by pouring boiling water over them, and 
turning it off in a few minutes, or they may be soaked 
overnight in cold water, when the outer covering 
may be easily removed. 

Chestnuts should be cooked over hot water, or 
may be used uncooked. All kinds of nuts are best 
suited to uncooked dishes or are sprinkled over food 
after it is cooked, giving meat value. 

Nuts may be ground, mixed with mayonnaise 
dressing, and spread between thin slices of bread or 
wafers for sandwiches, with or without a lettuce leaf. 



70 Practical Food Economy 

A teaspoonful or two is delicious over oatmeal for 
breakfast, using top milk in place of cream. Nut 
butter is a standard food, and is made by grinding 
nuts in a closely adjusted mill. Nuts added to salads 
give them full food value, as they supply the tissue- 
building element that is lacking in green vegetables. 

Every housekeeper should know something of the 
nutritive value of cheese and the many ways of 
preparing it into deHcious dishes for the table. As 
there are more than two hundred varieties of cheese, 
we can hardly take up all of them in this article, 
but will have to hold closely to the American cheese 
for our cooking dishes. This cheese is of the Cheddar 
type, but is a softer, milder-flavored cheese than that 
desired by our neighbors across the ocean. (See 
Table of Cheaper Meat Substitutes.) 

Casein, fats, and some mineral matter are in 

cheese, and the flavor is largely dependent upon the 

particular process of ripening. It is particularly 

digestible when served with salads, and should 

be used on the bill of fare more frequently than it is. 

The old fallacy that "Cheese is a naughty old elf, 

digesting everything else but itself," has — with our 

present knowledge of foods and cookery — proven 

untrue. It has no equal in replacing meat in our 

diet. 

NUT LOAF 

I cup English walnuts i tablespoonful butter 

I cup dry bread or cracker crumbs 2 eggs 
I cup milk I teaspoonful salt 

Dash of sage or parsley 



Meats 71 

Directions. Soak the bread crumbs in the milk. 
Add the well-beaten eggs, melted butter, chopped 
walnuts, and desired seasoning. Mix all well to- 
gether and bake slowly in a pudding dish or steam 
in a double boiler. Serve hot with tomato sauce as a 
substitute loaf for meat. 

NUT OR CHEESE CUSTARD 

I pint milk 4 tablespoonfuls sugar 

3 eggs I pinch salt 

Cheese or nuts 

Directions, Beat the eggs, without separating, 
until Hght and well mixed. Add sugar and salt and 
beat a very little more. Now pour in the milk, mix 
all together, and turn into a baking dish. Remove 
the crusts from three or four slices of bread and 
butter the sHces. Dip the buttered side into some 
finely grated cheese, chopped pecan or walnut meats, 
and lay nut or cheese side up, over the custard. Stand 
in a baking pan, partly filled with boihng water. 
Put into a moderate oven and bake until the custard 
is set. Serve cold. 

Fats in Menu Making 

Cooking methods and materials have undergone 
a marked change in the past few years. As a result, 
the nation's food is becoming more and more whole- 
some through the use of different discoveries in foods, 
new sources of supply, and the inteUigent weighing 
of their values and purity by the housekeeper. 



72 Practical Food Economy 

The terms "domestic science" and "home eco- 
nomics" are better understood and appreciated; the 
people as a whole are fairer to their stomachs, realiz- 
ing that their health, business, and progress depend 
upon this faithful servant. Digestion and disposi- 
tion sound very much the same, but a good "dis- 
position" is often wrecked by a poor "digestion." 

America has been called a nation of dyspeptics, 
but it is fast changing to a land of sensible eaters and 
consequently to healthier, happier, and more efficient 
people. One of the greatest changes has been in the 
kinds of fat we have been using in our foods, for one 
of the most important food supplies for our bodies 
comes from the digestible fats we use. 

One half of our physical energy is derived from the 
different forms of fat we eat. If this is not pure, 
easily digested fat, the digestive organs are over- 
taxed. Or if the animal fats, such as lard, suet, etc., 
are not used in very reasonable quantity, disarranged 
digestion is the result. We should not put these 
excesses in fats into our desserts when we have used 
them plentifully in the main course of the meal. 

A letter recently received asking that all the dif- 
ferent fats from oleomargarine to olive oil be ex- 
plained is just the keynote to information for which 
many women are asking every day. In a few words 
I can explain to the home maker the composition 
of the various animal and vegetable fats on the 
market, and then she can make her own selection 
intelligently. 



Meats 73 

Oleomargarine is made of the oleo (or beef fats) 
and vegetable fats. Nutmargarine is made of cocoa- 
nut oil and stero fat. By vegetable fats, we mean 
those made from olive oil, cocoanut oil, peanut oil, 
and refined cottonseed oil. These are most whole- 
some fats for cooking, also for salads and table use 
— thus saving butter at the season when the price 
is highest. This is most valuable knowledge for 
every woman who has charge of a home and cooking, 
and these butter substitutes are decidedly useful 
for all cooking purposes. 

All fats are labeled "butter" or "animal fats" or 
"without animal fats", so that if the label is read, and 
one has an understanding of fats and their place in 
the menu, it is not possible to go wrong in buying 
them. It is interesting to note that among the very 
poor in foreign districts, where olive oil is used 
freely as a fat, the children show better physical 
condition than under the same conditions among 
Americans, where only animal fats or practically 
none of any kind are used. 

Fat is of vast importance to growth and the build- 
ing of body tissue, and every woman should be well 
informed on the subject of fats in menu making. 
Under normal conditions, if butter would be used in 
moderation, it could be afforded at least once or twice 
a day for the table and some cooking. 

An ounce of butter or two level tablespoons is a 
fair allowance for each person for each day when 
meats, olive oil, and cream are used. As a test, let 



74 Practical Food Economy 

the reader try this and divide the ounce of butter 
in three portions and see whether one will use less or 
desire more. If all creamed dishes and sauces have 
the butter or other fats added as they are removed 
from the fire, the flavor and digestive qualities will 
be improved, and a less amount required. 

DEEP-FAT FRYING 

"Order, Cleanliness, and Know-How, and the greatest of these 
is Know-How." 

That her doughnuts, crullers, croquettes, fritters, 
and other deep-fat fried foods shall not be soaked with 
grease is the desire of every housekeeper. 

This result is due more to the handling of the fat 
than to the preparation of the food to be fried, 
although that is also quite important. But the best 
doughnut dough could be prepared, and if the fat 
were too hot or too cold, a heavy grease-soaked 
doughnut, or one cooked too rapidly outside and 
not done inside, would be the result. 

My experience with hundreds of housekeepers has 
been that it is this heating of the fat which has 
troubled them. The progressive, thinking house- 
keeper to-day is substituting a vegetable fat for the 
old-time animal fat. It is surely more healthy 
where fried foods are used, which we are eating less 
and less, making it possible for members of the family 
who have weak stomachs to eat them without any ill 
effects. 



Meats 75 

A good test is to heat the vegetable fat until a small 
piece of bread becomes a golden brown in sixty 
seconds for raw-dough mixtures, crullers, etc. ; in 
forty seconds for cooked mixtures, croquettes, cod- 
fish balls, etc. ; and in twenty seconds for French 
fried potatoes. 

About the same temperature will apply for lard, 
although a blue smoke is watched for at first, which 
means that this is a burned fat before it reaches the 
frying heat, and therefore is not as wholesome for 
frying purposes. 

Fat may be clarified by frying a sliced raw 
potato in it and straining through cheesecloth ; by 
keeping fat clarified, it may be used indefinitely. 



HOW, TO CRUMB 

Take some pieces of stale bread, dry and roll, or 
put through the food chopper. Break the egg into a 
soup plate and beat until white and yolk are well 
blended. Add two tablespoonfuls of cold water. 
Dip croquettes (or whatever is to be fried) first in 
crumbs, then thoroughly cover with egg, drain a 
minute and then dip again in crumbs. The cro- 
quettes may stand an hour, and be dipped again. 
All this work may be done in the morning and set 
in a cool place until ready to be fried. When done, 
drain on blotting paper or paper towel, which absorbs 
all the grease. 



76 Practical Food Economy 

CROQUETTES 

I pint chopped cooked chicken, veal, or i teaspoonful chopped parsley 

any meat or combination of left-overs i teaspoonful grated onion 

1 pint milk Salt and pepper 

2 tablespoonfuls butter A dash of cayenne ' 
4 tablespoonfuls flour Fat 

Directions. Clean and separate the chicken as for 
a fricassee. Put into the saucepan and cover with 
boihng water, boihng five minutes ; then simmer 
until tender, about one and a half or two hours. 
At the end of the first hour, add one small onion, 
a dozen cloves, two bay leaves, one teaspoonful of 
salt, one fourth teaspoonful of celery seed, or a little 
fresh chopped celery. When done, cool the chicken 
and chop. If you have one pint of the chopped 
chicken, use proportions given, or part sweetbreads 
or veal may be used. 

Put the milk into the double boiler, rub butter and 
flour together, adding a little hot milk so as to pour 
into rgmainlng milk in the boiler, stir, and cook 
until it is thick. Add all the seasonings to the meat 
and then to the sauce. Stir until well blended. 
Cool and make into pyramid-shaped croquettes, dip 
in bread crumbs, and then in beaten Qgg as directed, 
being careful to cover the whole croquette, or the hot 
fat penetrating to the cold center is apt tomake them 
pop open. Fry in hot fat until a rich brown, drain 
on blotting paper. Serve on a hot dish with a piece 
of parsley in the top. 

All meat croquettes are made as above, changing 



Meats 77 

seasonings to suit the meat. A pair of sweetbreads, 
cooked three quarters of an hour, chopped and added 
to the chicken, make the croquettes more deUcate. 
Veal may also be used. Five pounds of veal from the 
leg and one chicken will make about seventy-five 
croquettes. 

DROP DOUGHNUTS 

2 cups pastry flour 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder 

J cup sugar ' I teaspoonful melted butter 

I cup milk i teaspoonful salt 

I egg Nutmeg 

Fat 

Directions. Put all dry ingredients into the flour 
sifter and sift into the mixing bowl. Beat the egg 
well and add to the milk. Add this gradually to the 
dry mixture with the melted butter. In the mean- 
time have the fat heating in the kettle over a moder- 
ate fire. When hot, test by dropping in a piece of 
bread to see if it browns quickly; then drop the 
batter by teaspoonfuls into the hot fat to fry until 
a light brown. These are very nice for breakfast 
and are very easy to make ; the dough may be 
made the day before, covered, and set in a cool place. 
It is much better to practice with this recipe before 
making the rolled kind. 

PLAIN DOUGHNUTS 

f cup sugar i tablespoonful soda 

I cup sour milk ^ teaspoonful cream of tartar 

About 2 cups flour i teaspoonful baking powder 

I tablespoonful butter or fat | teaspoonful nutmeg 
I egg 



78 Practical Food Economy 

Directions. Sift all the dry ingredients together. 
Beat the Qgg and add it to the milk. Add the butter 
softened over hot water. Mix all well together and 
stand in a cold place for an hour or overnight. 
Roll out half an inch thick, cut out with a doughnut 
cutter, and fry as directed in deep fat. 



Waste No Fats ! ^ 

1. Serve only as much butter and salad oil at 
the table as will be eaten, so that left-overs will be 
as small as possible. It is not necessary to serve 
butter at dinner when other fats, such as meats and 
olive oil, are served. 

2. Use no more fat than a good recipe calls for. 
Too much spoils the product and may hinder diges- 
tion. 

3 . Add butter to vegetables just as they are served. 
If added during the cooking, there is a loss in strength 
of flavor and in quantity, if the cooking water is not 
saved. 

4. Salt pork or bacon boiled with vegetables gives 
a pleasing flavor and adds some food value. 

5. Finely chopped suet may be used for shortening 
in such mixtures as steamed puddings and spice 
cakes. 

6. Either uncooked or cooked fats from chickens, 

1 Based on Bulletin of Ohio Branch Council of National Defense 
Agriculture. 



\ 



Meats 79 

geese, or other fowls may often be used as any other 
fats would be. If the flavor is strong, they may be 
used in mixtures having strongly flavored ingredients, 
like molasses or spice, whole wheat or bran bread, 
or they may be prepared as "savory fat" and used 
for many vegetables. 

7. Render fats by chopping them in small pieces 
and heating in a double boiler or a kettle set in 
another kettle containing water (the inner kettle 
must be so raised as to allow complete circulation of 
water). When completely melted, strain through 
two thicknesses of cheesecloth wrung out of hot water. 
Fats rendered in this way are not overheated and 
therefore keep well. 

8. The shriveled tissue, which remains after ren- 
dering, is called "cracklings" or "scraps." It may 
be used as shortening in corn bread and other mix- 
tures. 

9. Save the drippings from roasts, sausage, and 
broiled meats. Save the fat from pot roasts and the 
soup kettle. These may be used as they are for 
making gravies, browning stews, warming over 
vegetables, etc. 

10. Clarify fats as follows : Heat with about the 
same amount of milk (preferably sour) or water 
in a double boiler for an hour or more. Stir oc- 
casionally. 

Strain as directed. When cold, the hard clean 
layer of fat can be easily removed. 



80 Practical Food Economy 

Vary Menus with Fish 

"Wisest is he who, never quite secure, 
Changes his thought for better day by day; 
To-morrow some new Hght will shine, be sure, 
And thou shalt see thy thought another way.'* 

— Archibald Lampman. 

Particles of fish left over after a good piece or a 
whole one has been served are not the same as scraps, 
and should not be treated as such for making into 
attractive, appetizing dishes for another day or 
meal. Far too frequently we are indifferent to the 
value of such material in our larder. It is the 
one left-over which should never appear on the 
luncheon or supper table without being made into an 
appetizing, presentable, new dish, and this may be 
done without much trouble or expense. 

Even a small remnant of good fish may be made 
into a charming morsel if it is daintily freed of all 
gristle, bones, or unsightly pieces. If it is to be 
served cold, just enough mayonnaise to lie on top of 
a neat helping of the fish is quite sufficient; or the 
clever manipulator of culinary materials will bind 
her sauce with a little aspic jelly, which is any plain 
consomme or stock well seasoned and made tart 
with a little lemon juice or tarragon vinegar and 
stiffened with gelatine. This is most desirable in 
making up attractive cold fish dishes, as it changes 
the appearance of the fish entirely, and permits mold- 
ing in forms most appetizing in appearance and taste. 



Meats 81 

Sometimes salmon, cod, white fish, or our most 
delicious canned tunny fish may be separated into 
medium-sized pieces, arranged on a platter, coated 
with a very thin aspic, and decorated with parsley, 
hard boiled eggs, cold peas, beets, carrots, or any 
other edible foods. No one who understands the 
value of food would ever chop the best pieces of good 
fish; they should be served in as attractive a manner 
for the second meal as for the first. It is only when 
pieces are small that we use them for creaming or 
chopping fine for a souffle. Not only fresh fish but 
many of the smoked ones are most delicious to use ; 
the latter have a fine flavor all their own, due to the 
special treatment they receive in smoking, and many 
of these are particularly good in making sandwiches 
with a few olives, pickles, or bits of crisp bacon 
chopped up with them. 

The point I wish to make is, that pieces of left- 
over fish should be treated as good food and used in a 
variety of ways, and should not be considered even 
as "left-overs" if one gives a little thought to the 
careful preparation of such dishes. Fish is very 
valuable in its food content, and runs all the way in 
proteid value from five per cent, to twenty-two and 
two tenths per cent., the higher percentage being 
found in dried salt cod. Fish also contains a fair 
percentage of fat and mineral matter. Lobsters, 
clams, oysters, and crabs average from five to fifteen 
per cent, proteid, with a fair percentage of fat, 
mineral matter, and carbohydrates; all of which 



82 Practical Food Economy 

shows that fish has a greater value in our diet than 
many women, particularly in the middle west, are in- 
clined to attach to it. I believe that many times this 
idea prevails because the average woman has thought 
that having fish meant cooking something for just 
one particular meal and that what was left was of no 
value. As a matter of fact a nice piece of boiled or 
baked salmon, co3, or haddock may be of as much 
value for luncheon or supper dishes or an entree for 
dinner as any dish prepared from the remains of a 
roast of meat. 

One only has to visit our fish markets or counters 
to find a great variety of dried fish (which has a 
concentrated food value), such as bloaters, halibut, 
sturgeon, finnan haddie, and cod ; also our own lake 
fish — yellow and blue pike, herring, white fish ; 
and from the Pacific Ocean, halibut and salmon. 
When any of these are prepared with milk or cream 
sauce, with the addition of a beaten egg or two, the 
family is provided with an economical dish of 
great food value and easy of digestion. We are edu- 
cated past the day of considering fish merely as a 
Friday dish ; it is of sufiicient importance to grace 
our tables on any day of the week and that more 
frequently than heretofore. 

Some points to be remembered in regard to the 
cooking of fish are : Salt gives flavor, and lemon juice 
or vinegar keeps the fish white and firm.. Tie fish 
loosely in cheesecloth when boiling — this holds it 
together and keeps the scum off. In baking fish, put 



Meats 83 

In a paper bag or cover closely with oiled paper; 
this holds in moisture and flavor and keeps odors 
from penetrating the house. In broiling, clean, wipe, 
dry, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, 
turning as necessary. The principal seasonings for 
fish are salt, pepper, lemon, parsley, bay leaves, 
tomatoes, curry powder, onions, butter. 

Indians and hunters long ago learned the art of 
wrapping unsealed fish in a casing of clay, baking on 
hot stones in the ground, and covering closely; 
when they returned from their hunt and broke this 
clay covering, the outside skin came off with it, 
leaving the fish moist and with all its original flavor. 
One hunter told me he had prepared fish in like 
manner, stuffing it with cranberries, wrapping it 
first in cheesecloth, then in the wet clay, and when 
opened he had a most delicious fish, moist and pink 
in color. The cooking of fish is an art that is quite 
worth while. 

PERFECTION FINNAN HADDIE 

3 slices bacon 2 tablespoonfuls flour 

I cup finnan haddie 2 yolks of eggs 

I cup milk Salt 

i| cups potatoes Paprika 

Chopped parsley 

Directions. Cut the bacon into bits and fry until 
crisp and the fat is out. Blend the flour well into 
this and pour the milk on gradually. Bring to the 
boiling point, then add the cooked, flaked finnan 



84 Practical Food Economy 

haddie and the cooked potato balls or cubes. Add 
seasoning and the slightly beaten yolks of eggs. 
Remove from the fire at once and serve, sprinkled 
with a little chopped parsley. 





FISH SALAD 


2 cups fish 


2 tablespoonfuls grated onion 


i cup celery 


French dressing 


1 cup beets 


Salt 




Paprika 



Directions. Separate from skin and bones cold 
cooked fish, such as halibut, salmon, or tunny fish. 
Cut the celery and pickled beets in small strips, add 
all other seasonings with the dressing. Mix together 
with a fork so as not to break the fish, and serve on a 
bed of lettuce or celery leaves mixed with parsley. 
If a mayonnaise dressing is used, and served with 
three hard boiled eggs, with bread and butter and little 
sweet dessert it makes an entire supper or luncheon. 

What to Serve with Fish^ 

With boiled fish. Sauce HoUandaise, boiled po- 
tatoes, parsley, butter, cucumbers or lettuce with 
French dressing. 

With baked fish. Fried or plain boiled potato 
balls, cucumbers or lettuce with French dressing. 

With broiled or planked fish. Potato balls, potato 
puff or plain boiled potatoes, cucumbers or lettuce 
with French dressing. 

1 Copyright 1908, Mrs. Kirk's Card Index Cooking Recipes. 



Meats 85 

With small fried fish, such as smelts. Tartar 
sauce, French bread, and butter. 

With creamed or deviled fish. Crisp bread and 
butter. 

With plain mackerel. Fried mush or corn bread. 

With plain cod. For breakfast, baked potatoes ; 
for luncheon or supper, plain boiled potatoes. 

With halibut steaks for luncheon. Cucumbers 
with French dressing, graham bread and butter. 

With fried halibut steaks for dinner. Plain boiled 
potatoes, cucumbers or lettuce with French dressing. 

Fish for luncheon or dinner should be followed 
with a salad with French dressing, wafers, a small 
bit of cheese, and coffee. 



CHAPTER III 

BREAD 

Why Do We Eat Bread ? 

There is hardly any food so universally used as 
bread, except possibly milk. Ever since the world's 
history began, bread has been used in some form as 
one of the staples of diet among all but the most 
savage people, and it would be interesting to trace 
the relationship between the bread-making process 
of various peoples and their growth in civilization 
down to the present time. 

Following this interesting research, we find that 
the Kaffir simply grinds his grain between two 
stones, makes a paste or cake of the meal and water, 
and bakes it in the ashes of his fire in the woods ; 
Israelites and Egyptians ate leavened bread ; the 
ancient Greeks cultivated the yeast plant, and in the 
ruins of Pompeii was found an oven containing 
eighty-one loaves of bread similar to those of the 
present day. 

The Swiss and French have their bread baked in 
public ovens, known the world over as "French 

86 



Bread 87 

bread." In our own United States it is baked in our 
private homes, or we have mammoth bakeries turn- 
ing out thousands of loaves which are delivered fresh 
at our doors every day. From this short resume 
of the use of the grains in the form called bread, we 
conclude that except with the lowest savages and in 
the most extreme climates, some kind of grain is a 
necessary food, and bread — when the entire grain 
is used — is one of the most convenient forms for 
every one, in all classes, as it gives the greatest 
amount of nourishment for the least labor and cost. 
So our conclusion must be that in the upward progress 
in civilization the more intelligent the people in a 
country or community, the better the bread. ■ 

Bread is used in every civilized country in the 
world, usually three times a day and three hundred 
and sixty-five days in the year, making a total of one 
thousand and ninety-five times a year that we eat 
of this well-known "staff of life" in some form or 
other; and surely it cannot be from "habit" only. 

Do not think, because we have many varieties of 
bread to-day, that it is anything remarkable when an 
ancient Greek writer names sixty-two kinds of bread 
as being in use. Years ago Egyptians knew the art 
of bread making, and baked loaves and cakes in great 
variety, and there are many characteristic breads 
of different nations still in use, such as the black 
bread and rye bread, the oat cakes of Scotland, 
Swedish rye cakes, French bread, and many others. 

Now, the well-known French bread has been 



88 Practical Food Economy 

changed during this war to whole wheat bread. 
Most significant ! A recent investigation in London 
found fifteen per cent, of the very poor children eating 
only bread for the entire twenty-one meals of the 
week ; forty per cent, more had other food only two 
or three times a week. So we conclude that so 
universal a food must be important in our diet and 
should be nutritious, palatable, and digestible. To 
create such a standard of bread, the flour used must 
be rich in nutrient, and not a demineralized or devi- 
tamined product ; the bread must be light and porous, 
sometimes coarse (not fine and close, as many have 
supposed) so that as large a surface as possible may 
be exposed to the digestive juices, and the baking 
must develop the flavor. 

The necessary ingredients for bread making to 
produce a finished loaf as described are flour, water 
or part milk, salt, and yeast, a most simple variety 
of material which may be counted on one hand; 
yet one of the few books v/hich describe to complete- 
ness this process of bread making is a volume of over 
six hundred pages. Surely bread is important 
enough to have the careful consideration of every 
home in America, and right now, with our United 
States at war, the first thing the woman in the home 
should know is how to make good bread. 

Our daughters, too, with lessons in bread making 
in the cooking classes in all our schools, and with 
practice at home should all know how to make a 
good, nourishing loaf of bread. 



Bread 89 

John Locke says, "If he at any time calls for 
victuals between meals, use him to nothing but dry 
bread. If he be hungry more than wanton, bread 
alone will down ; and if he be not hungry, 'tis not 
fit he should eat, and by this custom he will come 
to be in love with bread." 



Bread as a Food 

"From the point of view of public health it is of 
considerable importance that the bread supply for 
our constant use should possess the highest possible 
nutritive value," says one of our recent Washington 
bulletins. This bulletin refers particularly to condi- 
tions existing in the United States and is the direct 
result of some studies on the causes of the occurrence 
of pellagra in this country. 

An article with illustrations — which every man 
and woman should read and study carefully — was 
published in the April, 1916, number of Good House- 
keeping on "What Every One Should Know About 
Pellagra." As a result of the research by the United 
States Public Health Service, they conclude that 
it is essentially of dietary origin, and is caused either 
by the absence from the diet of proteins or by the 
presence of another substance not known. This 
investigation concerns the readers of this page to 
this extent : that in the Bureau of Chemistry in the 
Department of Agriculture, it can be clearly shown 
that the highly milled white flour and corn meal 



90 Practical Food Economy 

contain less protein^ fat, and ash than the old-fash- 
ioned products which preserved all these elements of 
the grain in the grinding. 

Once, while in Chicago lecturing, I visited a bake- 
shop where flours of all kinds are ground fresh in their 
own mill in the bakery every day. We were able 
to buy it ground coarse, medium, or fine, to suit 
individual or family needs. The coarse made a 
fine breakfast porridge and the medium was suitable 
for bread or muffins. It may be interesting to know 
that a small mill for grinding grains may be pur- 
chased for ^7.50 for use in the home. Besides the 
manager and his wife, we found a physician and a 
chemist in charge of the bakery, who are constantly 
testing all goods purchased for their use, such as 
molasses, nuts and nut butter, raisins, figs, fruit 
juices, etc. On one side of the shop were book- 
shelves containing books by the best authorities on 
foods, and here one is welcome to sit and read as long 
as one chooses. 

In our most interesting talk the manager told me 
it was up-hill work for years educating people to eat 
bread which meant real building food, but that now 
people were really thinking and putting it into action 
by their generous patronage of his whole wheat breads 
and flours. I know it was an inspiration to me to 
go on in this education for a better understanding of 
the value of bread as a food. He said, "Bread is 
said to be the staff of life, but if the bread is not good 
bread, made of the right ingredients — that is, the 



Bread 91 

whole grain and nothing added thereto for the pur- 
pose of making the bread light, look better, taste 
better, smell better, or sell better, and at the same 
time will in any way harm the one who might eat it 
— then the bread should be rightly called the staff 
of death. Our breads can truly be called the staff of 
life, for they are a perfect food. From a digestive 
standpoint, they meet every requirement of a food, 
being hard enough to give the teeth exercise in the 
mastication thereof for insalivation and deglutition, 
without which there can be no good digestion. These 
breads should be eaten from childhood to the end of 
life; they have the elements that will nourish the 
teeth and hence prevent decay. No teeth can decay 
that are well nourished." 

Let every family show their cooperation with our 
government in their research work for our health 
by eating bread made from the entire grain and 
demonstrating what its value is to us as food. 

Value of Whole Wheat Bread 

Let us emphasize once more that three times a day, 
three hundred and sixty-five days each year, a table 
is set in about twenty million homes in the United 
States. No matter whether mansion or hovel, all 
have one article of food on the table similar in 
appearance or quality — that is, bread. Much of 
this has been made from brushed, scoured, screened, 
sifted, denatured, and bleached flour which is eaten 



92 Practical Food Economy 

by our children three times a day in the form of bread ; 
and our government reports tell us that thousands 
of children in the United States, under ten years of 
age, are not able to live on such food and die from 
malnutrition or food starvation in such numbers that 
it has been easily forgotten or just taken for granted, 
because they "are children", or die of "children's 
diseases." 

The unrefined grain of wheat as it comes from the 
field contains in organic form the twelve mineral 
substances needed for the health, growth, and Hfe 
of the animal body, whether young or of mature 
years. The child needs it for growth and structural 
development, and the adult to maintain the tissues 
and strength of the body through constant everyday 
wear in various activities. 

The mineral substances — such as phosphorus, 
salts of calcium, iron, potassium, chlorine, fluorine, 
manganese, etc. — are contained, or rather left, in the 
brown outer skin of wheat, the cells underneath this 
skin, and the very heart of the berry or grain ; they 
also contain the mysterious r chemical substance 
so necessary to life called "vitamines" whose pres- 
ence is essential if bread is to be classed as real food. 
These elements are essential to our children's growth 
and to our own, and are to be found in the whole 
wheat bread, the coarseness being determined by 
the age or delicate intestinal tract of the individual. 

The use of such nourishing, undenatured honest 
foods will mean less cancer, diabetes, Bright's disease, 



Bread 93 

hardening of the arteries and Hver, so frequently 
found in middle age. At the age of forty or fifty 
years, when men and women should be at their best, 
these diseases are at their height, and much of the 
mortality is directly or indirectly traceable to de- 
natured and demineralized food. 

Much of the bread in the homes of the poor has 
been a poor apology for such food, while the families 
of the well-to-do have sufficient variety in their 
menus containing the necessary "vitamines." The 
children of the poor, in their restricted diet, greatly 
lack this important essential of food, if they do not 
get it in plenty of whole wheat bread. 

A satisfactory loaf of this bread is rarely available 
in our markets or on the tables of hotels and restau- 
rants. When I try to get this bread in public places 
for myself, I am told they have "no call for it." If 
this is true, then let us begin this education in the 
home, making such a perfect loaf of whole wheat 
bread that the family will demand and get the 
same kind and quality when eating in public hotels 
and restaurants, which hundreds and thousands of 
men, women, and children have to do every day. 
Our conclusion is that whole wheat, as a product or 
in bread, yields material which makes strong, robust, 
disease-resisting men and women. 

Bran is the coarse outer covering of wheat ; bran 
bread is particularly useful in constipation, and 
should be mixed with the whole wheat flour or cereals 
in breads, muffins, or breakfast foods. It should 



94 Practical Food Economy 

not be used for every meal, but usually only once a 
day or perhaps two or three times a week. This 
bread is not intended for children. 

Save the children, and we shall save the future citi- 
zens of the United States, and at the same time have 
our own awakening in better foods for better living. 

Standardizing a Loaf of Bread 

"What object can there be in continued existence on earth 
unless it be a constant striving after better things, an earnest 
looking forward to the time when justice, peace, and content- 
ment in life may prevail the world over?" 

— American Cookery. 

There is no phase or process of cooking about which 
a woman is so ignorant or so fearful as baking a loaf 
of bread or a pan of rolls. For many years I have 
found, however, that it is the one culinary subject 
which arouses greatest interest — real live interest 
in both men and women. 

From the very earUest times in history, bread was 
considered the "staff of life." It was the "staff" 
at that time, because father took the wheat and grain 
to the mill to have it ground and returned with as 
much as he took away with him ; the flour, meal, bran, 
with all the necessary elements in it. Bread was the 
main food of the family. We have wandered far 
from the good old "staff of life", which has been a 
pretty broken stick sometimes, but we are coming 
back to it rapidly. If it is white flour, it is not as 



Bread 95 

denatured, bleached, and bolted as formerly. If it 
is whole wheat, it is suppHed by our dealers, as 
millers are ready to meet the demand of the public, 
and they are insisting upon an honest whole wheat 
flour. 

The difficulty has been to have a woman use whole 
wheat and acquire a certain standard for the bread 
she serves her family. As a nation we have no 
standard for a loaf of bread, either in appearance, 
texture, flavor, or its function in the body three 
times a day ; and until every woman interests herself 
in estabhshing a definite standard for so important a 
food, she cannot take the proper interest either in 
making or buying a loaf of bread. In the past five 
years there has been a marked improvement in the 
quality of baker's bread, and women have become 
much better informed in relative values of foods and 
labor. But even so, I should say a homemade loaf, 
when well made, costs less and tastes -better. The 
housekeepers of two generations ago did many val- 
uable things which their granddaughters are just 
discovering through the study of Domestic Science 
in the pubHc schools, or which are unnecessary to-day 
because of changed conditions of life. 

Visit your best bakeshops and large sanitary 
bakeries and see with what cleanliness, system, and 
accuracy all their baking is done. Note the even 
temperatures in the process of raising and baking, 
thus insuring the same kind of loaf every day and not 
the ''good luck" or "bad luck" kind. All this, even 



96 Practical Food Economy 

to the wrapping of each loaf, Is done by machinery, 
which insures uniformity and cleanHness ; the standard 
may he just what every home-maker demands^ when she 
makes up her mind to set a perfect standard for a loaf 
of bread for her family and requires every loaf to 
reach this standard. 



Necessities for Good Bread 

1. A good baking oven with a thermometer or 
indicator for testing heat. I place this first because 
I consider it absolutely essential, as too much bread 
has been spoiled with too little heat or burned in the 
baking. No matter how perfect the preparation, all 
can be ruined in the baking. 

2. A good bread mixer. The hands cannot be 
made "perfectly clean", and they should be kept 
out of the bread as much as possible ; besides it is 
made and completed in a much shorter period, and 
assures a uniformity of practically good bread 
at every baking, because the methods are always 
ahke. 

3. Even, equal temperature. Uneven tempera- 
ture is really one of the most destructive things in 
bread making. Dough set to rise in a draft has 
spoiled many a loaf of what otherwise might have 
been "perfect bread." The temperature should be 
moderate, neither too hot nor too cold, and bread 
should never be set to rise where it would be too hot 
to place the hand. 



Bread 97 

4. Choose the best whole wheat or white flour of 
a brand you know to be good. Learn how to use it, 
so that just enough, and no more, may be used each 
time. 

5. A good hve yeast with water, or milk and water, 
and salt are all the necessities, although fat, sugar, 
molasses, nuts, and fruits may be added for the 
various changes. But learn to make good, palatable 
plain bread first. 

6. Time required is about four hours from the time 
it is set to rise until out of the oven, and left to cool 
on wire rack (see cut of apple pie). 

SIXTH CITY WHOLE WHEAT BREAD 

I pint boiling water 2 tablespoonfuls molasses or brown sugar 

I pint milk i compressed yeast cake 

I teaspoonful salt 4 cups whole wheat flour 

i| cups white flour 

Utensils. Bread mixer or large mixing bowl, tea- 
spoon, tablespoon, measuring cup. 

Directions, Put the milk into a large mixing bowl 
or bread mixer, and turn the cup of boiling water over 
it. Cool to lukewarm. While cooling, dissolve 
yeast in one fourth cup of lukewarm water, add i 
teaspoonful sugar (yeast feeds and grows rapidly 
on this), and a little flour to make a batter. This is 
to be rising and at work while milk and water liquid 
is cooling. When ready, add yeast, salt, and enough 
white flour to make a batter which can be beaten. 
Beat hard, cover, and set to rise in a warm place 



98 Practical Food Economy 

without drafts, until full of bubbles — one hour or 
more. Now add molasses (and one or two table- 
spoonfuls of shortening, if desired ; not necessary for 
good bread) and as much whole wheat flour as can be 
stirred in with a strong wooden spoon, or in the bread 
mixer, mix five minutes and set to rise until it 
doubles its bulk and then make into two loaves ; 
or turn at once into two medium-sized ^ bread pans, 
cover, and let rise until it doubles its bulk, then 
bake in a moderate oven forty-five minutes and cool 
uncovered. Practice only will make this a perfect 
loaf of bread. Raisins, nuts, figs, or dates may be 
added at the last mixing. Whole wheat bread mixed 
stiff enough to knead makes too dry a bread, unless 
through experience a woman knows how to handle 
the dough very quickly and deftly, and with a light 
touch. 

With this amount of liquid, many changes may be 
made by using corn meal, white flour, or rolled oats 
in any proportion desired or suggested in the list of 
"Wheat Flour Substitutes or Alternatives", follow- 
ing. 

Wheat Flour Substitutes 

The famihar term "war bread" means bread which 
is prepared by combining the minimum amount of 
wheat flour with other materials for bread making. 

Since, in the process of manufacturing patent 
flour, about three fourths of the mineral salt is lost, 
it is evident that by miUing a larger percentage of the 



Bread 99 

wheat, the food value as well as the positive amount 
of bread-making material would be greatly increased. 
This added mineral matter may become a vital factor 
in making up the diet of children. Good whole 
wheat flour is now sold by all good grocers. A corn 
mill for grinding corn and wheat at a very great saving 
may be purchased for home use. 

Some of the materials which may be substituted 
for wheat flour are : corn meal, buckwheat flour, and 
soy-bean meal. Our government is also investigat- 
ing many other foods which we hope may be used as 
substitutes, such as bananas, chestnuts, peanuts, 
white beans, millet, cottonseed flour, pease, rice, 
dasheen, cassava, alfalfa and kaolian. The last is a 
tropical annual plant which has been recently grown 
with success in the Dakotas. Sugar-beet flour has 
also been tried abroad with success. 

Corn meal may be used in the proportion of one 
part corn meal to two parts wheat flour. 

Buckwheat flour combines well with wheat flour in 
any proportion. 

Soy-bean meal and cottonseed meal are both useful 
in small amounts. 

Boiled mashed potatoes may be substituted for 
slightly less than half the flour, and this quantity 
may be lessened in the case of corn meal. Boiled 
rice may also be used with flour in about the same 
proportion. 

Equal measures of cooked bean pulp or rice and 
flour are satisfactory in mufiins. 



100 Practical Food Economy 

VERY BEST BREAD i 

I cup milk I teaspoonful salt 

I cup water ^ cake compressed yeast 

6 cups bread flour 

Utensils. Bread mixer, saucepan, measuring cup, 
measuring spoon, bread pans, flour sifter, wire cooler. 

Directions. Have the bread mixer clean, scalded, 
and screwed in place — low, if you wish to sit down 
to use it, and high if you are going to stand. Put 
the milk and water into the saucepan and bring to 
the scalding point ; be very careful that it does not 
boil. Pour this into the mixer and let cool to luke- 
warm. Dissolve the yeast in half a cup of lukewarm 
water, add about two or three teaspoonfuls of flour, 
cover, and set this to rise, while the milk and water 
mixture is cooling. When that is lukewarm, add 
the yeast sponge, and only five cups of the flour, 
with the salt. It is better to add the remaining 
cup as you see that it is needed, but be very careful 
and not put in too much flour, as this will make the 
bread dry. Now turn the mixer for about fifteen 
minutes, then if it is still sticky, add the remaining 
flour, half a cup at a time, until your dough is just 
right. It is the kneading, as much as the flour, 
which relieves the stickiness and makes it smooth and 
springy to the touch ; better too little, rather than 
too much flour. About fifteen or twenty minutes is 
usually sufficient for this kneading in the mixer, then 

1 Copyright, 1908, Mrs. Kirk's Card Index Cooking Recipes. 



Bread 101 

cover and set in a warm place. Now this does not 
mean hot, nor in hot water, nor on a radiator where 
you would get uneven temperature, but out of drafts, 
in a perfectly" warm place. Let rise two hours, or 
until it doubles its bulk, or breaks down and leaves 
a hole when you press your finger into it. Have 
your pans greased and warm (not hot) ; divide the 
dough into two equal parts, shaping lightly into 
loaves, put into the pans and cover with greased 
paper, setting in the same warm, even temperature 
to rise an hour, or until it has doubled its bulk, and 
the pan feels light. Now with all of this care, bread 
may be spoiled in baking if you do not understand 
your oven. Have a hot quick-baking oven. Put in 
the bread when ready and bake for fifteen minutes ; 
it should just begin to have a delicate color. Now 
lower the temperature a little so that it is a steady 
moderate heat, and bake it for this sized loaf forty- 
five minutes. Practice is the only sure method to 
secure success in making good bread. 

If you desire a stronger flavor to your bread, knead 
for ten minutes after the first rising and let rise again. 
This takes a little longer time than the first process. 
This recipe will make two loaves of bread. 

ENTIRE WHEAT AND BRAN MUFFINS 

I egg 2 cups bran 

I cup sweet milk i tablespoonful melted butter or vegetable fat 

^ cup white flour I tablespoonful molasses 

I cup entire wheat flour 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder 
2 teaspoonful salt 



102 Practical Food Economy 

Utensils. Measuring cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, 
mixing bowl, ^gg beater, gem pans, flour sifter. 

Directions. Sift all the dry ingredients into the 
bowl and then add the well-beaten Qgg^ milk, and 
melted shortening. Beat thoroughly four or five 
minutes, lifting the batter up well each time, so as 
to let in all the air possible. Bake in well-greased 
hot gem pans in a hot oven about twenty minutes. 
Sifting the flour is done only for lightness, and any 
bran left in the sifter should be added to the batter, 
unless some members of the family have delicate 
digestive organs ; then the bran is better left out, 
or put into only part of the batter. Add a cup of 
chopped raisins or currants for a change. 

GLUTEN MUFFINS 

Use two eggs, beating white and yolks separately, 
and one cup of gluten flour, in place of entire wheat and 
white flour. 

BROWN BREAD 

I cup buttermilk or sour milk i cup seedless raisins 

I cup honey (strained) i egg 

I I cups corn meal i teaspoonful soda 
^ cup flour I teaspoonful salt 

Utensils. Mixing bowl, flour sifter, measuring cup, 
measuring spoon, o^gg beater, saucepan, tablespoon, 
pans. 

Directions. Put the seedless raisins to cook in a 
very little water, and let simmer until the water is 
absorbed. Stir together the Qgg^ buttermilk, and 



Bread 103 

honey. Into this sift the corn meal, flour, soda, and 
salt. Flour the cooked raisins lightly and add. 
Pour into two one-pound baking-powder cans and 
steam. 

NUT BREAD 

3 cups flour I cup chopped nuts 

I cup strained honey (warm) 2 tablespoonfuls vegetable fat 

f cup scalded milk 2 teaspoonfuls salt 

I egg white (beaten) i yeast cake (compressed) 

Utensils, Bread mixer, saucepan, measuring cup, 
measuring spoon, tablespoon, flour sifter, egg beater. 

Directions. After dissolving the yeast cake in the 
warm milk, stir in a tablespoon of honey and i| cups 
of flour, beating the whole thoroughly. Then set 
in a warm place to rise. When light, add the re- 
mainder of the honey and flour, and the rest of the 
ingredients. Knead well in the mixer. Let rise 
until double in bulk. Then make into a loaf, and 
when light enough, bake in a moderate oven. 

Ready Food for the United States 
Corn Meal 

"It is difficult, if not impossible to make any good yeast or 
baking-powder breads out of corn meal alone. The granular 
particles of meal separate and can only be held together in 
baking with wheat flour and one or more eggs. Three parts 
corn meal with one of good gluten or bread flour gives good 
color, value and flavor.'* 

— Miss Hunt, Department of Agriculture. 



104 Practical Food Economy 

Indian corn has special historical interest for 
Americans from the fact that it is generally recog- 
nized as being native to American soil. It grows in 
the south and as far north as Canada. Its cultiva- 
tion and use, therefore, in the early days was very 
widely distributed throughout America. With iish 
and game it made the staple food of the Indians, and 
except for a little wild rice, it was the only cereal 
known to them. 

It was probably the recognized necessity of the use 
of corn meal which made the Indians abandon their 
nomadic life, form settlements, and cultivate corn. 
Now corn is raised in all regions of the world where 
it will flourish. In composition and nutritive value, 
fully ripened and matured corn is practically the 
same as other grains, except possibly wheat. 
, As compared with other cereals, such as wheat, 
rice, oats, rye, barley,- etc., its fuel and energy value 
is the highest of all the cereals, being about eighteen 
hundred calories per pound or about one hundred 
calories above the average cereal. It is too heating 
for the body in hot weather if used in large quantities. 

Regardless of the color of corn meal, there is only 
a little difference in flavor between the white and 
yellow, and only a slight percentage more of food 
value in the white. Methods of milling have changed 
so much that some modifications have been necessary 
in the cooking. In general, about ten per cent, more 
water is needed for the new process corn meal than 
for the old, and the best results are obtained by 



Bread 105 

heating meal and liquid together in a double boiler, 
without stirring, for ten or fifteen minutes ; also 
in the new process meal there is less water and less 
fat. In all old recipes, which call for no fat, a little 
butter or vegetable fat should be used. 

CORN MEAL MUFFINS 

^ cup corn meal i teaspoonful salt 

I cup flour 2 tablespoonfuls sugar 

f cup milk I tablespoonful pielted butter or vege- 

3 teaspoonfuls baking powder table fat 

I egg 

Utensils. Measuring cup, measuring spoon, flour 
sifter, mixing bowl, tablespoon, ^gg beater, muffin 
pans. 

Directions. Mix and sift into a bowl all the dry 
ingredients, add the milk gradually, and the egg 
well beaten, also melted butter. Bake in a hot oven 
in well-greased and heated muffin pans twenty-five 
minutes. 

SOUTHERN SPOON CORN BREAD 

1 cup white corn meal i cup milk 

2 cups boiling water i tablespoonful butter (or vegetable fat) 
§ cup hominy (cooked) i teaspoonful baking powder 

I cup rice (cooked) i teaspoonful salt 

I egg (white and yolk beaten separately) 

Utensils. Saucepan, tablespoon, measuring spoon, 
Q^gg beater, measuring cup, pudding dish. 

Directions. Add corn meal gradually to boiling 
water, boil five minutes, then add butter, and let 



106 Practical Food Economy 

stand until cool. Add baking powder, salt, and ^gg 
yolk well beaten, hominy, rice, and milk. Beat two 
minutes and add the Ggg white beaten until stiff. 
Turn into a buttered pudding dish and bake in a hot 
oven forty minutes. 

CORN MEAL AND FIG PUDDING 

I cup corn meal i cup chopped figs 

I cup molasses 2 eggs 

6 cups milk I teaspoonful salt 

Utensils. Double boiler, egg beater, measuring 
cup, food chopper, pudding dish. 

Directions. Cook the corn meal with four cups of 
milk in a double boiler. This should be put into the 
boiler cold and cooked fifteen minutes without stir- 
ring, adding figs and salt. When the mixture is cool, 
add the eggs well beaten. Pour into a buttered 
pudding dish and bake in a moderate oven for three 
hours or more. When partly cooked, add the re- 
mainder of the milk without stirring. Raisins may 
be used in place of figs if desired. 

CORN MEAL MUSH 

I cup corn meal 4 cups milk and water 

I teaspoonful salt 

Utensils. Double boiler, measuring cup, measuring 
spoon. 

Directions. Put all the ingredients cold into a 
double boiler and cook four hours. Serve with 
milk or cream. This mush is often eaten with 



Bread 107 

maple sirup, molasses or honey, maple sugar and 
butter. 

FOREST HILL CORN STICKS 

I cup corn meal i egg 

f cup flour 3 teaspoonfuls baking powder 

I cup milk i teaspoonful salt 

I cup butter or vegetable fat ^ cup hominy grits (boiled) 

Utensils. Measuring cup, measuring spoon, flour 
sifter, mixing bowl, egg beater, bread-stick pans, or 
muffin pans, tablespoon. 

Directions, Sift dry ingredients all together, add 
butter and milk to hot grits, and add egg well 
beaten. Bake in greased bread-stick pans until 
brown and crisp. 

Rice 

"The home-makers of a country are the soldiers in times of 
peace, and any woman who depreciates good home-making is 
depreciating the very roots of a country's prosperity and pre- 
paredness." 

The Federal Government has rather startled men 
and women in the recent food investigation by stating 
that the grave difficulty is the "waste each year in 
the home of ^700,000,000 in garbage." Does it 
mean that as women we have selected our food 
supply on the basis of tastes, instead of the amount 
of nourishment contained .f* If so, that may account 
for garbage cans well filled with peelings, bones, 
etc., when the same or greater food value which pro- 
duces our everyday energy may be supplied by 



108 Practical Food Economy 

a clean and easily prepared, palatable food, with no 
waste. 

Such is the unpolished and brown rice grown in 
our own United States. It is here, and has been 
waiting for us to use it. But not until necessity — 
good friend as she is sometimes — made a shortage 
in our potato supply, did we recognize rice as a regu- 
lar member of the food family ready to come to the 
rescue, not as a visitor all dressed up to serve only as 
an occasional dessert, but to occupy a regular place 
and give us her share of our food requirement. 

Will you note the comparisons of rice and pota- 
toes, made by Doctor Atwater, late of the United 
States Government : Rice, one pound, no waste, 
79 per cent, carbohydrates ; fuel value, in terms of 
calories, 1,620. Potatoes, one pound, waste 20 per 
cent., carbohydrates 14.7 per cent. This fuel value 
in terms of calories, only 295. So much for the dif- 
ference in waste and food value. 

Now ask any woman which is easier to prepare in 
her kitchen, and I feel sure rice would receive the 
preference because of its greater cleanliness, ease, 
and saving of time in preparing, all valuable assets 
to the home-making profession. It is the cooking, 
I think, which has been the great stumbling block 
against its acceptance with pleasure by the family. 

It may be cooked so that the kernels are formed 
into a heavy, solid, pasty mass, or it may be cooked 
until every kernel stands alone — dry, tender, and 
flaky, and fit to "set before the king" or the invalid, 



Bread 109 

for that matter. The latter is the method of cook- 
ing we wish to talk about. But first a word about 
unpolished rice and its relative food value. 

The producers of rice have frequently treated it 
with glucose, paraffin, or some other foreign sub- 
stance, making it bright and shiny to appeal to our 
eye ; then have charged us for this extra work. In 
this process they have also removed the outer cover- 
ing, which is far richer in minerals than the grain 
itself. When the rice is left in its natural unpolished 
condition, we have all the food elements retained, and 
unpolished and brown rice are both far superior to 
the prepared article. These we are able to secure at 
any first class grocer's now, and let us hope they are 
here to stay. 

No matter what rice is used, however, much of its 
value depends upon the cooking. It is a starchy 
food, fairly bubbling over with heat and energy, 
easily digested, and leaves little if any residue in the 
intestines. A few years ago rice was used only as 
a dessert. Now it is considered a valuable food and 
should be used as a vegetable instead of potatoes 
two or three times a week at least, or oftener, where 
there are children or elderly people in the family. 

COOKING RICE 

Rice may be steamed, cooked in a double boiler 
with just enough water, milk, or both, to be entirely 
absorbed by the kernels when tender, or boiled in 



110 Practical Food Economy 

plenty of salted water, which is drained off as a basis 
for soups. 

Where vegetables of all kinds can be steamed, 
much food value is saved. But where this is not 
possible, cook the rice in plenty of rapidly boiling 
water, adding a fourth teaspoon of fat to keep it 
from boiling over. Do not stir but keep it boiling 
rapidly, so that every kernel is tossed about actively. 
It takes from ten to twenty minutes to thoroughly 
break up the starch by this boiling temperature so 
as to make it digestible. 

When done, turn through a colander and save the 
water for soups, then blanch by letting cold water 
run slowly over the rice. Set the colander on a pan 
in the oven, or some warm place, to dry, and while 
preparing the remainder of the meal, occasionally 
toss the rice about. Sprinkle with salt, turn into a 
vegetable dish, and every kernel will be large, white, 
dry, and flaky. Serve as potatoes. 

Rice may be served in many different ways, and 
if a little is left over it can always be added to soup, 
croquettes, with cheese, tomatoes, puddings, fritters, 
or used as a rice border with a meat stew. 

The brown rice takes a longer time to cook than 
the unpolished white rice, and is used entirely as a 
vegetable or in casseroles with meats and other 
vegetables. It has a nutty, sweet flavor and when 
once used is liked by almost every one. It has 
the advantage of retaining all of its mineral con- 
tent. Start to-day and use brown and unpolished 



Bread 111 

rice in the regular bill of fare for economy and 
health. 

SPANISH RICE 

I sliced onion 2 tablespoons sweet red peppers (sliced) 

1 cup washed rice | teaspoon paprika 

2 cups canned tomatoes i tablespoon sugar 

I teaspoon salt 2 cups boiling water 

Directions. Cook 45 minutes in double boiler or 
fireless cooker. 

RICE WITH CHICKEN 

One cup rice washed and put in stone crock. 
Cover two inches with chicken stock. Salt and 
cook slowly until dry. Do not stir or add more 
stock. Dip with large spoon, arrange around platter 
with chicken in center. Pour gravy over all or serve 
separately. 

BAVARIAN RICE 

Soak 2 tablespoons gelatin in J cup cold water, 
wash J cup rice and sprinkle into boiling salted water. 
Boil until tender and dry as previously directed. 
Dissolve gelatin over hot water and cool. Whip i 
pint cream, fold in gelatin, cold rice, § cup powdered 
sugar, I teaspoon vanilla. Pour into mold. When 
ready to serve make following sauce : | tumbler 
quince jelly melted over fire with 2 tablespoons cold 
water, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and bits of orange 
peel. 



112 Practical Food Economy 

Macaroni 

"All through life be sure you put your feet in the right place 
and then stand firm." 

— Lincoln. 

There is no question but that we are living in an 
"Educational Era." Every new movement, whether 
charitable or for profit, must be educational. Every 
large department store and factory has its social 
service or educational department, which means a 
study of the best "ways and means" to better the 
conditions, from the food the, employees eat to the 
sanitary conditions under which they work. Their 
physical, mental, and moral activities are as care- 
fully watched as their development at work and at 
play. This new side of industrial management does 
not claim to be altruistic ; it is merely a recognition 
of the added returns in business profits where the 
employees are working under the best possible condi- 
tions. 

One phase of industrial management in the home 
has caused us to seek for cheap and nourishing foods. 
For a hundred years and more, macaroni has been a 
food product of Europe, but we have used it only 
when we wished to make a change in our American 
dishes. For years we have eaten the imported 
product, much of which is made and dried in the 
open, exposed to all the contamination of the outside 
elements. About twelve years ago, the United States 
Government stepped in and said, "We will bring 



Bread 113 

the seed of the Durum wheat from Russia and grow 
it in North Dakota, as the climate there is best 
adapted to it." It is from this wheat that a flour 
with a minimum of sixteen per cent, gluten and 
little or no starch is made. 

Mixed into dough with water, kneaded and pressed 
into shape, dried by machinery and packed into 
packages, we buy it as "macaroni", "spaghetti", 
and "noodles", which average 1645 calories per 
pound. 

Thus we have added to our "food family" a 
product rich in nutritive content, clean and easy to 
cook, and best of all, cheap enough for the poorest 
household. Every man, woman, and child should 
know that macaroni furnishes a large quantity of 
gluten, which is one of the elements of food that the 
human system turns into blood, sinew, and muscle, 
and this macaroni made from the Durum wheat 
contains more gluten than any other wheat product. 
In this inexpensive food we have practically all the 
elements of bread and meat. It is easy, quick, clean, 
and economical to prepare. If well cooked with 
varied seasoning, such as milk, meat, or cheese, 
the family will not tire of it, but ask for "more and 
oftener." 

When our wheat supply is shortened, for any 
reason, we are particularly fortunate in these United 
States in being able to grow corn, rice, and Durum 
wheat, which will give us a sufficient supply of grain 
products to be alternated with wheat. 



114 Practical Food Economy 

COOKING MACARONI 

Cook macaroni, spaghetti, or noodles In plenty of 
actively boiling salted water. Water should cover 
any of these while cooking, and the boiling should be 
continuous and lively for twelve to fifteen minutes. 
Turn into a colander and drain. Rinse with cold 
water to avoid sticking together. However, if a 
high-grade quality of macaroni is used, there is little 
or no starch to be removed ; it is all a golden-yellow 
gluten, rich in every requirement for nutrition. 

SEASONINGS FOR MACARONI 

The above formula is the first process in cooking 
macaroni, no matter what particular dish is to be 
made. Then a sauce made from milk, tomatoes, or 
beef, veal or chicken stock, thickened with flour, 
also butter or any vegetable fat, or meat, may be 
mixed with it. 

To this dish for variation may be added bacon cut 
in bits, sliced onion and green peppers, and cheese 
cooked together and added to the sauce. Such meats 
as chicken, veal, Hamburg steak, or other chopped 
meat left over may be arranged in a baking dish, in 
layers, with cheese added to the sauce and sprinkled 
over the top, and browned in the oven. 

Garlic, paprika, pepper, butter, onion, eggs, and 
nuts are all used with macaroni dishes, which include 
spaghetti and noodles. 



CHAPTER IV 

MILK 

Women's Duty in the Care of Milk 

" It is for us to express love in terms of human helpfulness." 

— David Starr Jordan. 

Educating the woman in the care of milk in the 
home should go hand in hand with the increased 
demands made on the dairy farmer for a cleaner, 
higher grade of milk, and on the milk dealer for 
greater care in delivering it at our doors pasteurized, 
clean, cold, and unadulterated. If the milk producer 
in the country and the milk dealer in our cities have 
conscientiously done their duty, then surely every 
woman in any home should be willing to learn and to 
do the simple things necessary after the milk reaches 
them, giving it proper treatment so it will not become 
unfit food, especially for babies. 

One of our United States Government bulletins 
says : "The bad treatment consists — 

(i) In placing the milk in unclean vessels. 

(2) In exposing it unnecessarily to the air. 

IIS 



116 Practical Food Economy 

(3) In failing to keep it cool up to the time of using 
it. 

(4) In exposing it to flies." 

From my experience in milk investigation in our 
own city in the past few years, I should say that one 
of the most serious dangers to our milk is in having 
no proper place for the milkman to deliver it at our 
doors. In riding about the city to find out just where 
the milkman left the milk, as late as nine o'clock in 
the morning, I found it on the front or back porch, 
with the hot sun beating down on it, or in all sorts 
of places where uncleanliness prevailed, and where it 
was within easy access of cats and dogs. In all kind- 
ness, and yet seriously, I must say that any woman 
who does not plan for a clean place out of the sun is 
undoing very rapidly the work she has demanded of 
the dairy farmer and her milk dealer in giving her 
clean, cold, pasteurized milk. 

The careless handling of this food, the most valu- 
able single article of diet known to man, is due to one 
of two causes — either as women we are indifferent 
to the health of the family, or ignorant as to the effect 
of careless handling of milk. We feel sure that no 
woman could be indifferent to the health of her 
family, so we must conclude that it is due to lack of 
understanding. Most of us are pretty well educated 
in the matter of buying milk in milk bottles which 
are thoroughly sterilized and clean when the pas- 
teurized milk goes into them, but there are still many 
places in the smaller towns where milk is sold by dip- 



Milk 117 

ping from large cans and pouring into receptacles 
on the street. I had my awakening to one of the 
dangers of such delivery several years ago, when early 
one morning I saw the driver of a milk wagon eating 
his sandwich and drinking milk from the deep cover 
of the can. 

If it is imxpossible to get milk in bottles, have a 
clean, covered fruit jar set out, but never an open 
vessel where thousands of bacteria will gather over- 
night; and never put money or tickets in the jar. 
Take the milk into the house as soon after delivery 
as possible, especially during the summer months. 
Wash cap and bottle immediately. Place at once 
in the refrigerator ; otherwise in cold running water, 
or wrap in a wet cloth and place in moving air; or 
coarse salt may be placed in the water, which reduces 
the temperature. When ready to use, remove cap 
with the lifter (furnished free by all milk dealers), 
cover with a clean inverted glass — or milk-bottle 
covers may be purchased at any house-furnishing 
store for a few cents — then return to a cool place. 

Have perfectly clean receptacles into which milk 
is poured. Cleanliness and cold are imperative if 
the family are to have good milk, and all suggestions 
regarding milk apply to cream also. Milk absorbs 
impurities whenever it is left uncovered in the refrig- 
erator or on the kitchen table while preparing a meal, 
or when the pan or bowl into which it is emptied is 
not clean — I mean by that, every corner clean and 
thoroughly scalded with boiling water before using. 



118 Practical Food Economy 

Home Information about Milk 

Every woman should know why certified milk is 
the only safe milk to use unpasteurized, and that all 
other milk — for safety to her family — should be 
pasteurized. There are dangerous bacteria which 
grow or develop in milk, causing illness, particularly 
among children. Pasteurizing clean milk, that means 
heating to not less than 150° F. and reducing at once 
to a cool temperature, say 40° F., is our present 
method of eliminating such dangers. 

Bacteria are thickest where there is dirt and decay, 
consequently everything should be kept clean and cov- 
ered to preserve the flavor, and make milk safe to use. 
If kept at a temperature of 50° F. or a little less, milk 
should keep for twelve hours or more, and new milk 
should never be mixed with old, unless it is to be used 
at once, as the old milk may destroy the fresh. 
Good milk, as described, is a well-balanced nutritious 
food, containing : 

3 to 4! per cent, butter fat 
4J to 4! per cent, milk sugar 
si to 3! per cent, proteids 

It is the best food for nursing mothers ; the most 
necessary food for children ; an economical food ; 
when clean, a safe food ; makes muscle ; has no 
waste; requires no cooking; is good food for the 
sick ; the best food for young and old ; can be used 
in the making of many dishes ; is a better and cheaper 



Milk 119 

food than condensed milk or any patented foods ; 
is an easily digested food ; the most valuable food 
from soup to dessert in the home. If a mother is 
obliged to choose between rich milk or clean milk, 
she had better take the latter. Skimmed milk 
contains all the original food value, except the fat. 

In conclusion, no matter how well milk has been 
handled up to the time it is delivered at the door, 
it cannot be expected to keep if carelessly handled in 
the kitchen. This is the cooperation which every 
woman should pledge herself to enforce in the home, 
so that she does not nullify all the work done by 
Federal, State, and municipal authorities, and render 
useless the time and money spent by the dairy farmer 
and our own milk dealers in giving us what we have 
demanded — clean, cool, unadulterated, and pasteur- 
ized milk. In small towns the women should keep in 
close touch with their local milk dealer in order to 
know cleanliness and quality of milk ; in large cities 
call on the Board of Health for information about the 
milk supply. 

Questions for Mothers 

In a recent United States illustrated bulletin. 
Number 717, entitled "Food for Young Children", 
written by Caroline L. Hunt, scientific assistant, 
office of Home Economics, is a most interesting " re- 
view" of the pages studied in this bulletin relative 
to children's foods and the cooking of them. She 
writes as follows : 



120 Practical Food Economy 

At the close of the day the mother might ask herself 
questions like the following, to make sure that she has 
taken into account the things to which her attention has 
been directed : 

"Did each child take about a quart of milk in one form 
or other ? 

"Have I taken pains to see that the milk that comes to 
my home has been handled in a clean way ? 

"If I was obliged to serve skim milk for the sake of 
cleanliness or economy, did I supply a little extra fat in 
some other way ? 

"Were the fats which I gave the child of the wholesome 
kind found in milk, cream, butter, and salad oils, or of 
the unwholesome kind found in doughnuts and other 
fried foods ? 

"Did I make good use of all skim milk by utilizing it in 
the preparation of cereal mushes, puddings, or otherwise ? 

"Were all cereal foods thoroughly cooked ? 

"Was the bread soggy? If so, was it because the 
loaves were too large, or because they were not cooked 
long enough ? 

"Did I take pains to get a variety of foods from the 
cereal group by serving a cereal mush once during the 
day? 

"Did I keep in mind that, while cereals are good foods 
in themselves, they do not take the place of meat, milk, 
eggs, fruit, and vegetables ? 

"Did I keep in mind that children who do not have 
plenty of fruit and vegetables need whole wheat bread 
and whole grains served in other ways ? 

"Did each child have an egg or an equivalent amount 
of meat, fish, or poultry ? 



Milk 121 

''Did any child have more than this of flesh foods or 
eggs ? If so, might not the money have been better 
spent for fruits or vegetables ? 

"If I was unable to get milk, meat, fish, poultry, or 
eggs, did I serve dried beans or other legumes, thoroughly 
cooked and carefully seasoned ? 

"Were vegetables and fruits both on the child's bill of 
fare once during the day ? If not, was it because we 
have not taken pains to raise them in our home garden ? 

"Did either the fruit or the vegetable disagree with 
the child ? If so, ought I to have cooked it more thor- 
oughly, chopped it more finely, or have removed the skins 
and seeds ? 

"Was the child given sweets between meals, or any- 
thing that tempted him to eat when he was not hungry ? 

"Was he allowed to eat sweets when he should have 
been drinking milk or eating cereals, meat, eggs, fruit, or 
vegetables ? 

"Were the sweets given to the child simple — i.e. un- 
mixed with much fat, or with hard substances difficult 
to chew — and not highly flavored ? 

"Was the child made to eat slowly and chew his food 
properly ? " 

A young child may be considered well fed if he has 
plenty of milk, bread, and other cereal food ; an &gg once 
a day or its equivalent in flesh foods, a small portion 
each of carefully prepared fruits and vegetables, with a 
small amount of sweet food after his appetite for other 
foods is satisfied. 

If there is too much or too little of any of these, his 
diet is one-sided. 



122 Practical Food Economy 

Milk Table 

" If I were asked today what factor would be most effective 

in increasing the virility and endurance of the American citizen 

during the next generation, I would answer, unhesitatingly, a 

strict governmental, state and municipal control of infant feed- 

ing." 

— Harvey W. Wiley, M.D. 

1. Milk is not a beverage, such as water, tea, or 
coffee, but is valuable especially for children as food, 
and should be taken slowly. 

2. So far as we know, nothing serves so well as 
clean milk for the diet of the healthy child. 

3. If a mother is obliged to choose between rich 
milk and clean milk, she had better take the latter. 

4. Clean, fresh, skim milk is better for a child 
than dirty, questionable whole milk. 

5. Compared with other foods, milk contains 
much lime, which aids in teeth and bone structure, 
and but very little iron. So spinach, carrots, and 
other green vegetables, also egg yolks, should be 
used, as they are very rich in iron. This is the 
reason why combinations of egg yolks and milk and 
vegetables and milk are given in children's menus. 
The vegetables should be strained and rubbed 
through a sieve. 

6. When milk is given to children, the chill is 
usually taken from it. 

7. The following are some good milk combination 
dishes : 

Bread and milk. Use well-baked whole wheat. 



Milk 123 

corn, mush, or graham bread, oatmeal crackers, or 
toast. 

Cereals and milk. Oatmeal, and all wheat foods 
(according to needs of individual child). 

Milk gravy. Use with codfish, dried beef, tender 
chicken, fish, or vegetables. 

Milk toast. Use alone or with hard boiled yolk of 
Qgg. (Do not use whites unless chopped very fine.) 
Skimmed milk having no fat may be used with 
foods of a fatty nature. 

Cocoa. Make with whole or skimmed milk. 

Milk soups. With vegetable purees. 

Custards. Steamed or baked. 

Floating island. Also many other combinations. 

Buttermilk 

A sign attracted my attention one day, which 
read: "Get the happy habit: drink buttermilk." 
I hear the question asked over and over again — 
''Is buttermilk good for you.f"' Sometimes yes; 
sometimes no. In other words, I might answer 
yes and no. If it is made from clean pasteurized 
milk and taken moderately, yes, most people can 
drink it. But if made from centralized milk (by 
that we mean cream separated from milk) from any 
and all farms, when we have no knowledge as to 
conditions of cleanliness, and where this cream is in 
no way pasteurized and the buttermilk left thin, 
I should say that drinking the buttermilk made 



124 Practical Food Economy 

from this loose milk was not a "happy habit" for 
any one to form. 

We do know that a lactic acid in buttermilk, 
which has been made from pasteurized milk with 
a good Bulgarian culture under sanitary conditions, 
is an excellent cleanser and purifier of the intestinal 
tract. Too much of it can be taken into the system 
at one time, or in a day, or week even. It should 
be drunk in moderation. From a pint to a quart 
a day for the average person is plenty, and that, 
sipped slowly with a sandwich or a whole wheat 
muffin and butter, followed by a baked apple, is a 
good luncheon. 

Very high praise is given to lactic buttermilk by 
the best medical authorities who are thoroughly 
conversant with the experiments of Metchnikoff. 
Strangers who come to Bulgaria marvel at the 
extreme youth of the so-called old people, for they 
are old only in years, not in health and strength, 
as was learned by Metchnikoff, who came here to 
Investigate this "youth In old age." He found that 
these people were drinking sour milk, or milk con- 
taining lactic acid. And this is the whole secret of 
youth — keeping the body and intestinal tract clean. 

We would be horrified to have anything decayed 
and putrlfied around our home. In our living room, 
bedroom, kitchen, or pantry, but we forget to take 
a peep Inside of our bodies occasionally. It should 
be done seml-occaslonally, and we would be horrified 
at the uncleanhness which we would find there. 



Milk 125 

Buttermilk Is a particularly good remedy for all 
those troubled with gout, rheumatic tendencies, and 
liver troubles, but it should be made from pas- 
teurized milk and kept covered under clean, sanitary 
conditions in the home. When some is left over, 
various good things may be made from it, such as 
pancakes, breads, biscuits, corn bread, corn cakes, 
Boston brown bread, and many other well-liked foods. 

BUTTERMILK NUT BREAD 

l| cups sour milk or buttermilk 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 
4 cups whole wheat flour | teaspoonful salt 

^ cup sugar i tablespoonful fat 

I cup chopped English walnuts i egg 

f teaspoonful soda 

Utensils. Egg beater, bowl, chopping knife, two 
bread pans. 

Directions, Beat the ^gg in the bowl, add the 
sugar, beat again, and then add all the remaining 
ingredients, mix and knead into two loaves and set 
in a warm place, covered, for twenty minutes ; bake 
in a moderate oven forty-five minutes or one hour. 
This is fine for children's lunch, sliced thin and 
slightly buttered. 

QUICK BUTTERMILK BREAD 

I cup whole wheat flour i cup raisins 

f cup white flour 2 teaspoonfuls cream of tartar 

I cup buttermilk J teaspoonful soda 

Directions. Sift together flour, salt, cream of 
tartar, and soda. Stir it into buttermilk, add raisins. 



126 Practical Food Economy 

Make into a loaf, score it across, and bake in a 
moderate oven three quarters of an hour. 

BUTTERMILK BISCUIT 

I cup buttermilk | teaspoonful salt 

I teaspoonful soda 3 tablespoonfuls butter or fat 

Flour 

Directions. To buttermilk, soda, salt, and butter 
or other fat, add sifted flour to make a dough. 
Knead until smooth and elastic as for light bread. 
Roll out one half inch thick, cut out, brush over 
with milk or cream, and sprinkle with granulated 
sugar ; bake in a quick oven for ten or fifteen minutes. 

WHOLE WHEAT CRUMPETS 

I pint buttermilk 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder 

I tablespoonful fat ^ i| cups whole wheat flour 

I teaspoonful salt ' 2 eggs 

I teaspoonful soda 

Directions. Beat whites and yolks of eggs sepa- 
rately, add yolks to milk, soda, melted fat, salt, 
flour, and baking powder. Fold in the well-beaten 
whites of eggs, and bake in hot mufhn tins for thirty 
minutes. Split while hot and butter. The addi- 
tion of maple sirup or fresh stewed fruit makes this 
an inviting supper dish. 



CHAPTER V 

CONSERVATION OF FRUITS AND 
VEGETABLES 

Truths about Canned Food 

"The business of real home-making is a problem of heart 
and brain, rather than one demanding physical toil for its 
solution.'* 

— Selected. 

Fruits and vegetables of our own choosing would 
certainly be fresh and ripe from tree, vine, or field, 
instead of obtained with the aid of a can opener; 
or sweet milk, clean and fresh from a dairy, instead 
of the concentrated product in cans ; or, if we were 
to choose between the peas, beans, and corn gathered 
fresh every morning from our gardens and those 
picked and packed in cans thousands of miles away 
and shipped to our grocers, we would no doubt 
prefer our home garden variety. For no fruit is 
ever so good as when picked in our own garden, 
and no milk is ever so sweet as when freshly drawn. 
But we cannot all have gardens, and even when 
we do, the crop is soon exhausted, and milk fresh 
from tested and registered stock is not possible to 

127 



128 Practical Food Economy 

more than a limited and fortunate few. Of course, 
there are many who can afford to spend any amount 
of money on satisfying the appetite, and they can 
have hothouse fruits and vegetables brought from 
far countries and held in refrigerators ready to 
supply their demand the year round. All that is 
changed now, when every one must share alike, so 
we may have enough to divide with all, and the tin 
or glass can must supply the large majority of us 
with its contents of early June peas about eleven 
months of the year, and our pantry or reserve 
shelves with canned beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, 
fruits, soups, and vegetables of every description 
which offer no mean substitute for the fresh 
products. Indeed, in many cases, if the buyer of 
home supplies knows how to select a good brand, 
the goods from the can are more juicy and palatable 
than the stale, wilted, half-ripe, so-called fresh 
products from poor markets. Neither would it be 
economy for any woman to can inferior foods ; nor 
to do so if the cost would, in a perfect product, exceed 
the ready canned goods of fine quaHty. 

We have heard much of the process of canning in 
the past few years, and we are quite aware that we 
have some of the bad with the good, but education 
by means of books, illustrated magazine articles, 
and moving pictures has done much towards giving 
all of us true knowledge of the best quahty of canned 
goods for the home. This liberal education has en- 
lightened us further on home canning, so that we 




An Entrance to a French Garden. 

This picture shows how the French utilise every bit of land for growing 
fruit and vegetables of the finest type. They train peaches and pears on 
poles and on lattice work against the walls, thus saving space, avoiding 
shade, and securing sun-ripened fruits and vegetables of superior flavor. 
The gardens are beautiful beyond description, artistic and brightened by 
many Howers. 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 129 

are better able to conserve for future use foods which 
otherwise would go to waste in our own gardens. 
The art of canning is but little more than a hundred 
years old. When it was found that all kinds of food 
could be sealed in glass or tin and preserved there 
indefinitely, it was first given official recognition by 
the French Government. In these hundred years, 
and especially in the last ten, canning has made 
wonderful strides as an industry, and no food is now 
so unusual or so rare that it is not preserved for 
future consumption. With the difficulty, under 
present conditions, of procuring importations, it is 
not surprising that the alert, progressive American 
canner is beginning to show us some wonderful 
choice fancy canned products of our own. 
[ Perhaps all women in the home do not know that 
every soup known to the most skilful chef is made 
at our best canning factories in ideal, clean, sani- 
tary kitchens from the finest materials and by the 
most skilled cooks money can obtain ; and such 
products we may have on our tables from our well- 
stocked shelves at a moment's notice. 

Doctor Barnard, State Food and Drug Commis- 
sioner of Industry, says : 

"The once common belief that canned goods con- 
tained preservatives and other gross adulterants has 
been shown to be false, and the reports of chemists, 
who in every State and many cities check food frauds, 
show that no foods on the pantry shelves are less 
liable to adulteration than those in the tin package. 



130 Practical Food Economy 

"Canned goods are not preserved by chemicals, 
because they are made sterile by heat, the safest, 
cheapest, and altogether the best way of saving food 
in good condition until the time it may be needed. 

"In the tin package there is no deterioration and 
no waste. Wheat in the elevator or granary may 
become damp and soggy, and it is always subject to 
attack by rats and insects. 

"Food in cold storage has a definite life Hmit, but 
food in the can stays good so long as the tin package 
lasts. Canners are modern Josephs, storing up a 
surplus in ideal warehouses against times of scarcity, 
and when the brethren descend on the unprepared 
housewife, there are always tinned foods on hand to 
avert the famine and load the lengthened table." 

With this feeling of safety, it rests with the house- 
keeper to select as good a quality — not necessarily 
a fancy brand — as she can afford to buy and then 
see that none of it goes to waste. 

If there is any one thing which will spoil the flavor 
and tenderness of the best canned vegetables it is 
draining off all the liquor into the sink, turning the 
vegetables into a saucepan, and cooking hard and 
long with milk until all taste and goodness is dissi- 
pated. A double boiler is the only utensil which 
should ever be used for reheating vegetables. If 
the water or liquor in the can is not desired at the 
time of heating the vegetables, drain and save for a 
soup another day. Surely, much of the food value 
most important for its mineral matter must be lost 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 131 

in turning the liquid down the sink drain. All 
canned vegetables should just be heated through, as 
their cooking was done when canned. 

There is nothing better for seasoning than good, 
sweet butter, salt, and pepper or paprika, or a few 
spoonfuls of cream. A sprig of mint in lima beans 
gives a flavor most people will like, and a little 
chopped parsley in carrots or turnips improves the 
flavor. Then such delicious soups may be made 
from peas, corn, tomatoes, etc., that they seem a 
necessity in the house all the year round. There is 
hardly a day in many homes when tomatoes are not 
used for sauce, seasoning, stewed, baked, or for salad. 

Canned fruits are used as desserts just as they 
come from the can or in shortcakes, pastries, etc. 
Sometimes there is a larger proportion of juice in the 
can than fruit ; save this for sweet sauces for pudding, 
or for fruit punches, lemonades, etc. In the case of 
canned peaches, for instance, for ice cream or Bava- 
rian creams, only the solid fruit is used ; then the 
juice should be reserved to be made into sirups, 
sauces, or beverages. 

Canned pineapple is one of the most beneficial of 
all the fruits during the spring months. It is better, 
however, to use after, rather than before a meal, as 
the acid in pineapple is a good digester. 

Use canned goods, as we do all other foods, with 
understanding and intelligence in their selection and 
preparation. It seems to me most fitting that 
women should know something of the canning in- 



132 Practical Food Economy 

dustry, which has reached such a high state of per- 
fection, and from this study they can learn much in 
home conservation of fruits and vegetables. 

Home Canning 

"I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end 
of the social scale he may regard himself as being. The law of 
worthy work well done is the law of successful American life. 
I believe in play, too; play and play hard, so that greater 
interest and strength may be given to work. The work is 
what counts ; and, if it is well done and is worth while doing, 
then it matters but little in which line that work is done — the 
man or woman is a good American citizen." 

— Selected. 

The subject of home canning, or preservation of 
fruits and vegetables, has been of interest to women 
for many years. They have naturally wished to 
"store away" for the winter. By some it was done 
easily and successfully, but others — perhaps the 
large majority — made hard work of it, and they were 
not sure whether they were going to have "good" 
or "bad luck" after a hard day's work in canning. 

Knowing the necessity and obligation resting upon 
the women of every home in our land in the conser- 
vation of all surplus fruits and vegetables for future 
use, it is not necessary for us to urge women to give 
their best service to this economic and additional 
work in the home. They never fail in a call to duty. 

The canning of a few jars of fruit and vegetables 
every season in the home has been comparatively 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 133 

easy, but on the large scale outlined for this year, 
it becomes a factory job, and unless the proper selec- 
tion of fruits, vegetables, and jars, with perfect sterili- 
zation and definite methods of work are thoroughly 
understood, and cooperation and help are given by 
the entire family, there will be more waste and loss 
than saving in this conservation of foods. 

Conservation of women's strength means a mobiliz- 
ing and readjustment of most homes, and the time 
has come for the real living of community life where 
every member of the household is responsible for his 
or her share of work. 

It takes no more time or effort to do a thing right 
than wrong. One is certainty, and the other is un- 
certainty in results. Know the best method of can- 
ning, then follow it. If it is to be done in a slipshod 
"guess it will keep" method, don't attempt it; 
and this year take no chances, but know. \ 

The old preserving or canning kettle has no place 
in our modern methods of fruit preservation, neither 
has a big wash boiler, unless in the country where 
fruit ripens in quantities and must be taken care of 
or spoil. Then I can see some use for such quantity 
methods, but the wash boiler is not for city canning. 

A modern roaster may be used for canning, as 
there is a rack already in the bottom and a good deep 
cover to put over the top ; little heat is created, as 
six jars are easily canned over one burner, and that 
is enough for any woman who does her own work 
to attempt at one time. 



134 Practical Food Economy 

When there is plenty of help, the steam cooker 
may be used, and will hold eighteen jars done by 
the steam process, with the water all in the pan on 
one burner below the jars. There are also steam 
pressure cookers, which are accurate; only two or 
three jars may be canned at once, but in less time. 

Decide upon the number of jars necessary for the 
entire canning season and get them early. Also 
any other utensils necessary for good expeditious 
work. At the height of the season, fruit jars are 
often scarce and advance materially in price. No 
end of failures and inconvenience are caused by 
shortage of containers when the canning is in process. 

The kitchen must be made perfectly clean and 
free from dust before the process of canning is be- 
gun. Everything should be dusted with a damp 
cloth and the floor clean and free from dust. The 
one doing the work should be equally clean and her 
hair covered. 

Fruits perfectly fresh, clean, and not overripe 
should be used. Never be persuaded to use pre- 
servatives of any kind or description. 

Scales for weighing are as necessary as jars, as 
fruit and sugar for preserving can only be correctly 
proportioned by weight. 

For years our Government has been making a 
study of this very subject, and has presented to us 
the "cold pack" process, which, if followed exactly, 
cannot fail. Whenever such conditions as are men- 
tioned exist, all other methods should be cast aside 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 135 

and this one chosen with an assurance of no loss in 
fruits or vegetables, because the science of sterili- 
zation is revolutionizing home canning. Women 
may can a jar or two every day with perfect ease 
without disrupting the household as used to be done 
with the bushel or two of fruit and the open kettle 
method. The general principle of the "cold pack" 
method is this : that fruits and vegetables preserved 
in this manner are prepared, placed in jars, and 
covered either with a thin sirup, or boiling hot 
salted water; the jars are then covered, set in boil- 
ing water or live steam from a few minutes to a few 
hours, removed, sealed, and stored in a cool, dry, 
dark place. This heat kills all germ life, and fruit 
or vegetables will keep indefinitely. 

The Cold Pack Method 

1. Have jars clean and tested for leakage before 
beginning to can. 

2. Use all new rubbers. 

3. Have ready on the stove a covered canner, 
oval or round in shape, with rack for holding jars 
and partly filled with boiling water. (A large covered 
kettle with wire rack to raise the cans from the 
bottom of the kettle could be used.) 

4. Select perfectly ripened fruit for canning or jelly 
making. Keep others for everyday use or drying. 

5. Have required number of jars and covers in 
the canner or kettle, so that when the water is boil- 



136 Practical Food Economy 

ing, they are hot, and no breakage will occur when 
boiling sirup or water is poured into them. 

6. Place the vegetables or fruit in the wire basket 
and set in a kettle of boiling water for "blanching", 
counting time when the water begins to boil. (See 
table.) When blanched, lift out wire basket, and 
dip up and down two or three times in cold water. 
Both boiling and cold water cause the removal of 
excess acids and shrinkage, so more may be placed 
in jar, and cause vegetables to retain their original 
coloring. 

7. Pack the skinned, scraped, or cut product into 
the jars a quarter of an inch from the top. 

8. With fruits, fill with boiling sirup. (See 
table.) With vegetables, fill with boiling water and 
one teaspoonful of salt to each quart of vegetables. 

9. Put on the new rubber rings, which have been 
dipped in boiling water, and, if a screw top, screw 
on part way to allow some steam generated in the 
jar to escape for safety in preventing breakage. If 
a glass-top jar is used, snap top or short wire, leaving 
the larger one until the sterilization time is finished. 

10. Place the filled and covered jars on the rack 
in the canner, with the water completely covering 
the jars, and begin counting the time when the 
water begins to boil. (See time-table for different 
fruits and vegetables.) 

11. When finished, remove from hot-water can- 
ner, seal tight, watching rubber that it does not slip 
out of place, cool, and store in a cool dark place or 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 137 

wrap in paper to prevent fruit fading. (Send for 
"Home Canning by the One-Period Cold-pack 
Method", Farmers' Bulletin Number 839, United 
States Department of Agriculture.) 

TIME-TABLE FOR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING 
(COLD PACK METHOD) 

Based on United States Government Charts, Plus Experience 



Products to be 
Canned 


Preparations 


Boiling Water 
OR Sirup 


Cooking Period 


Soft Fruits 








Strawberries, 


Grade, rinse, stem. 


3 cups sugar to 


Count time 


dewberries, black- 


pack whole. 


2 cups water, 


when boiling 


berries, and blue- 




boil for 4 min- 


in canner be- 


berries. 




utes. 


gins. 


Peaches, apri- 


Grade, rinse, seed, 




Hot-water bath, 


cots, sweet cher- 


skin, or pit. 




strawberries, 8 


ries. 


Pack cherries whole. 




minutes, other 




peaches and apri- 




fruits 8 to 12. 




cots in halves. 






Sour Berry Fruits 








Currants, goose- 


Stem, pit, rinse, 


(Same as 


Hot-water bath, 


berries, cranber- 


blanch in hot water 


above.) 


12 minutes. 


ries, sour cherries. 


I minute. Dip 
quickly in cold 
water. Pack whole 
closely. 






Hard Fruits 








Apples, pears, 


Grade, blanch i| 


(Same as 


Hot-water bath, 


quinces. 


minutes in hot 
water, dip quickly 
in cold water. 
Skin, core, pack 
whole, in halves, 
quartered, or sliced. 


above.) 


20 minutes. 



138 



Practical Food Economy 



TIME-TABLE FOR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING 
(COLD PACK METHOD) — Continued 



Products to be 
Canned 



Preparations 



Boiling Water 
OR Sirup 



Cooking Period 



Vegetable Greens 

Asparagus, spin- 
ach, cauliflower, 
Brussels sprouts, 
beet tops, Swiss 
chard, kale, French 
endive, dandelion. 



Tomatoes 



Corn 



Legumes 

Peas, Lima beans, 
string beans, lentils 



Blanch In steam 
from 15 to 20 min- 
utes. Dip in cold 
water. Cut in 
convenient sizes. 
Pack tight, season 
to taste. 



Scald long enough to 
loosen skins. Dip 
quickly into cold 
water, core and 
skin. Pack whole. 



Blanch on cob from 
3 to 5 minutes. 
Dip quickly in cold 
water. Cut from 
cob with sharp 
knife. Pack loosely. 



Cull, string, grade. 
Blanch from 2 to 5 
minutes in boiling 
water. Pack whole, 
or they take up 
less room cut or 
sliced fine, some- 
times called 
"Frenched." 



Fill jar with 
boiling water. 
Add I tea- 
spoon salt to I 
pint jar. 



Add I teaspoon 
of salt to I 
quart jar or | 
teaspoon salt 
to I pint jar. 

Fill jar with 
boiling water. 
Add I teaspoon 
salt to I quart 
jar or | tea- 
spoon salt to I 
pint jar. 



Fill jar with 
boiling water. 
Add I tea- 
spoon salt to I 
quart jar or | 
teaspoon salt 
to I pint jar. 



Hot-water bath, 
90 minutes, 
except cauli- 
flower 45 min- 
utes. 



Hot-water bath, 
20 minutes. 



Hot-water bath, 
3 hours. 



Hot-water bath, 
2 hours. 



Conservation of Fruits and Ves:etables 139 



Products to be 

Canned 



Roots 

Beets, carrots. 

(Unless jars are 
plentiful for all 
canning, these two 
vegetables, includ- 
ing sweet potatoes, 
should be stored in 
the cellar in box 
or barrel, covered 
with clean sand, 
dirt, or shavings, 
with small ones on 
top to be used first, 
as they are apt to 
shrivel or dry up.) 



Preparations 



Cleanse thoroughly. 
Scald till skin is 
loose. Dip quickly 
in cold water. Re- 
move skins. Pack 
whole, sliced across 
or lengthwise. 



Boiling Water 
OR Sirup 



Fill jar with 
boiling water. 
Add I tea- 
spoon salt to I 
quart jar or | 
teaspoon salt 
to I pint jar, 



Cooking Period 



Hot-water bath, 
90 minutes. 



A sirup made of three cups of sugar to two cups 
of water and boiled for four minutes, or until it 
reaches the temperature of 219° F., can be used in 
the canning of all fruits. The sugar should be well 
dissolved before placing on the fire, and the time 
counted when it begins to boil throughout. Never 
stir while boiling. 

Variations may be made to meet the individual 
tastes and kind of fruits. If a thinner and lighter 
sirup is desired, do not boil sugar and water more 
than two or three minutes. If a thicker, heavier 
sirup is desired, boil the sugar and water not more 
than five minutes. Half sugar sirup and half boil- 
ing maple sirup, or honey, gives a most delicious 
change to such fruits as peaches and pears. 



140 Practical Food Economy 

Home Evaporation of Fruits and Vegetables 

There are very few women of this generation and 
particularly in city districts who know or appreciate 
home evaporated or dried foods. In the rural dis- 
tricts, however, it was the usual method long before 
canning and cultivated fruits were known. The 
wild fruits and berries which were gathered on 
prairies and in the woods were "stored away" in 
this manner for the winter. This method is still 
used — plus the canning — as much fruit can be 
dried with less effort and with no danger of any 
loss. But old methods are fast passing away, and 
an evaporator is a common part of household equip- 
ment in many rural homes. The smaller size is more 
convenient for city use, and if any drying is to be done, 
it should be used, as it shortens the time by days, and 
always insures accuracy in work and eliminates that 
great danger of contamination by flies and insects 
as when the evaporation is done out of doors. 

I have been very fortunate in having the experi- 
ence of my mother to call upon, plus the investiga- 
tion of the more modern methods of evaporation of 
fruits and vegetables, and can recommend such preser- 
vation of food as economical, unexcelled in preserv- 
ing quality and taste and all the good elements in a 
concentrated form of natural flavor and nutriment. 
The heat develops all the natural sugars of the fruit, 
and you really secure a better product with this 
method of preservation. 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 141 

The National Emergency Food Garden Commis- 
sion, Washington, D.C., in response to thousands of 
requests for equipment for all kinds of canning and 
drying, have furnished a list which every woman 
should send for at once, so they may choose for 
accurate, speedy work only the tested and best 
utensils. 

How TO Use an Evaporator 

Set the evaporator on the stove, which may be 
oil, electric, or a single gas burner. This has really 
the principle of ^the double boiler. Turn water 
through the funnel into the lower pan and put your 
peaches (halved or sliced lengthwise or across), 
apples, pears, plums, cherries, berries of all kinds, 
tomatoes, corn, mushrooms, string beans, peas, 
pumpkin, etc. — whichever one of these you have 
ready to dry — into the top pan. Heat is produced 
by the hot-water bath underneath, and evaporation 
of moisture in the fruit or vegetables begins to take 
place at once. 

Time-Table for the Evaporation of Fruits 
AND Vegetables 

Cherries Wash and stem ; pit or not as you choose. Time, about 

Apples (fall and winter varieties) 2| hours 

Pared, cored, and sliced thin across. 2| hours 

Peaches- Wash, stone, cut in halves, cut side up. 2| hours 
Apricots, 1 

Pears, and > Prepare same as peaches, j 2 hours 
Plums J 



142 



Practical Food Economy 



Time-Table for the Evaporation of Fruits 
AND Vegetables — Continued 



Corn 



Peas and 
Beans 



Parsley, 
Peppers, 

and 
Celery 
Leaves 



(Most satisfactory of all vegetables to dry 
and furnishing a wonderful treat for any 
one who has never eaten evaporated corn.) 

Use freshly picked corn, scald, cut from 
the cob, and heap on the dryer. The 
entire top may be filled ; simply stir once 
in a while to dry evenly. 

(All surplus Lima beans, peas, string or wax 
beans may be conserved for winter use by 
this simple process.) 

String the beans or shell the peas, and fill the 
top of the dryer, stirring occasionally that 
evaporation may take place evenly. 



n 



hours 



2 hours 



Storage. Store In clean paper bags or boxes ; keep 
in a dry place. No cans or sugar necessary. 

Method of Using. When ready to use any of the 
evaporated fruits or vegetables, soak two to three 
hours, or overnight, in water to cover, and they 
will soon be restored to their original size and ap- 
pearance. Then place them in a double boiler or 
over a slow fire to cook as desired, when any addi- 
tional sugar required may be added to the fruits 
and the regulation seasoning to the vegetables. 

When not possible or practical to have the evapo- 
rator, small amounts of drying may be done with 
ordinary home appliances, but the process will take 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 143 

longer and be dependent upon sunshine ; also 
greater care will have to be exercised to keep such 
vegetables as corn from growing sour. So vege- 
tables and fruits are scalded first and then turned 
on to plates, or into white paper-lined pans, when 
there is liquid, or on to a clean cloth spread on a 
table. Pans and plates may be set in a very, very 
slow oven, and the product stirred occasionally; 
when the cloth and table are used, this may be placed 
on. the porch or in the yard, but covered with cheese- 
cloth to keep out dust and flies. Even so, it is not 
the cleanest method of conserving fruits and vege- 
tables, besides entailing the extra work of bringing 
it into the house every night or on damp rainy days. 
Sugar may be sprinkled over fruit in drying, and 
gives a richer taste. 

(Send for "Drying Fruits and Vegetables in the 
Home", Farmer's Bulletin Number 841, United 
States Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D.C.) 

Dried Fruits and Their Uses 

"I have just used my last jar of fruit" is not an 
unusual thing to hear in the home in the spring. 
This need not be quite so much of a tragedy as it 
sounds, as there are fresh fruits and berries in the 
market and more coming all the time ; but it takes 
money to buy fresh fruits, and sometimes much 
money. 

The market prices fluctuate on a special holiday 



144 Practical Food Economy 

with great demands, or with scarcity of fresh fruits, 
adding a few cents to the cost of even the common 
fruits, while a day or two later they may drop 
much lower. But the evaporated or dried fruits 
are a staple article in season, and they require little 
if any sugar, which is a saving (particularly now 
when sugar is so high), and very little fuel to bring 
them back to their highest perfection. 

All fruit is mainly water, which has the ad- 
vantage of always being pure. The solids are very 
useful in keeping the body in a healthy condition. 
Dried fruits have parted with all their moisture and 
natural juices in the drying process, and they 
must have these restored before they are cooked. 
The most effectual way to do this Is, first pick 
the fruit over carefully and wash well In luke- 
warm water, to remove any foreign substances. 
(Not necessary when home evaporated.) Then let 
them soak in enough water to entirely cover over 
night. 

The time for soaking depends upon the dryness of 
the fruit, but sufficient water should be absorbed to 
fill out the fruit to Its natural outlines. Set over 
slow fire In a covered saucepan. In the water In 
which It has been soaked, and bring to the boiling 
point. Now put on the back part of the stove. 
Turn the gas burner as low as possible, placing an 
asbestos mat under, and cook very slowly. 

The usual size double boiler is too small to allow 
the fruit to swell to its full size, unless half a pound 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 145 

or less is being cooked. Some fruits, such as apri- 
cots, need little or no cooking, only the soaking and 
a light sirup made and poured over them. 

A fireless cooker is perfect for cooking all these 
evaporated fruits, or a double boiler of generous 
size. The main thing is to cook them slowly in 
order to soften the fruit and develop the sugars and 
flavors in them, as well as a dark, rich, sweet sirup. 
This is particularly true of prunes. 

There is scarcely any limit to the good things 
which can be made from these fruits when properly 
cooked, and they may also be eaten much more 
freely by children or elderly people, or those having 
rheumatism or other acid diseases, than the fresh 
fruits. 

I was, however, very much surprised when in- 
vited to dinner at a small club in New^ York to have 
prune ice cream served. My friends said they had 
ordered it specially for me to try, as it was a great 
favorite with all who dined there. It was delicious. 

PRUNE ICE Cream 

Prepare cream same as for vanilla ice cream. 
Drain and seed carefully prunes cooked as directed. 
Rub through the puree sieve or a colander, or they 
may be even chopped very fine. For every quart 
of sweet cream and one cup of sugar, use one pint 
of the prunes unsweetened and one tablespoonful of 
lemon juice. Freeze and pack. Let ripen for one 
hour. 



146 Practical Food Economy 

DATE MUSH 

One pint corn meal, one teaspoonful salt, one 
tablespoonful flour, one pint cold milk, one half 
pound dates chopped. Cook in double boiler one 
hour, the evening before, while getting dinner or 
doing up the dinner dishes. If too thick, add a 
little hot water. In the morning reheat in double 
boiler. 

APRICOT SHORTCAKE 

3 cups pastry flour 4 teaspoonfuls baking powder 

I cup butter or vegetable fat 2 teaspoonfuls sugar 

I teaspoonful salt Milk 

Utensils. Flour sifter, pastry board, measuring 
cup, measuring spoon, knife or spatula, pan. 

Directions, Set the flour sifter into bowl and add 
the sifted flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. 
Sift, measure, add the fat, and cut well into the 
flour. Now add milk, a little at a time, using a 
knife — cut It in rather than stir. Have the 
dough just stiff enough to take out on the board 
and pat to fit a large size pie pan. Brush the top 
over with cream, sprinkle with granulated sugar, and 
bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes. Split 
open while hot, spread with soft butter, and put 
between and on top a layer of apricots, or other 
fruit, cooked as directed. Serve with cream. 

With the exception of Oregon prunes, fruits will 
never need sweetening, if cooked slowly, as they 
are very rich in their own sugar. But apricots are 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 147 

quite tart and will need sugar ; peaches will need 
very little. Any fruits such as berries, prunes, apri- 
cots, and peaches are very good for shortcakes, pies, 
tarts, ice cream, or souffles. 

STUFFED PRUNES 

All of the dried fruits are very fine steamed. In 
fact, there is no better way to cook them if one has 
the steamer. Select choice, large California prunes 
and prepare as directed, or soak and steam, but not 
too soft ; remove the stones and stuff with nuts and 
dates, or raisins chopped fine. Roll in granulated 
sugar. They are better by keeping several days, 
and are a dainty and nutritious after-dinner sweet. 

Science of Jelly Making 

**We learn wisdom from failure much more than from suc- 
cess, often discover what will do by finding out what will not 
do, and probably he who never made a mistake never made a 
discovery.*' 

— Samuel Smiles. 

In all my experience in lecturing on the preser- 
vation of fruits, and answering questions from 
housekeepers on this art, there is no branch in which 
they have all felt so insecure as jelly making. The 
rule that worked perfectly well last year failed this 
year. The housekeeper can give no reason for it, 
but only knows that last year her jelly was perfect 
and she had no difiiculty whatever in having it 
"jelL" This year it will not harden, and some of 



148 Practical Food Economy 

it candies besides, although the same recipe was 
followed. "Why doesn't the jelly harden?" and 
''What causes jelly to candy or crystallize?" are 
constant questions. 

All fruit for jelly should be perfect and under 
rather than overripe, as in this condition it con- 
tains a starchy substance, called pectin, which is* 
necessary for jelly; and this quality is lessened as 
the fruit ripens. If the fruit is overripe and fer- 
ments, or the jelly is cooked too long, the pectin 
loses its jelly-making power. It is therefore of the 
greatest importance to know how to select fruit 
which is just reaching the ripening stage and is full 
of juice which has not, through overripening, lost any 
of its jelly properties. 

An acid fruit is the most suitable for jelly making, 
though in some of the acid fruits — strawberries, 
for instance — the quantity of jelly-making pectin 
Is so small that it Is difficult to make them "jell." 
If, however, a little currant juice is added, a fine 
jelly, pleasant to the taste, is the result, although 
the flavor of the strawberry will be modified. If a 
scant teaspoonful of tartaric acid is used for every 
cup of sugar, results will be equally as good, and 
the flavor of the strawberry preserved. Unless 
points just like these are perfectly clear, jelly making 
will always be a hazy, indefinite uncertainty, with a 
feeling of, "I had good luck last year and bad luck 
this year." 

If the season has been a very wet one, the fruits 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 149 

will contain a larger amount of acid and moisture 
and will require more sugar. If, on the contrary, 
there has been much sunshine, the fruit will contain 
or develop more sugar, which is the reason why 
jelhes candy sometimes ; consequently, less sugar 
will be required, and in that event some of the more 
acid juices or tartaric acid should be used. After 
all is written, the art of jelly making consists in 
*' knowing how" and in "thinking." 

Some of the most desirable fruits for jelly making 
are apples, currants, crab apples, quinces, grapes, 
blackberries, and raspberries. 

Berries should be placed, a few at a time, in the 
colander, and washed quickly so as not to absorb 
moisture. Then put them into an aluminum pre- 
serving kettle with a large bottom, and heat until 
the juices are well started. Pour all into a double, 
three-cornered cheesecloth bag and hang up to drip. 
A ten-cent harness hook screwed up over the kitchen 
sink, where the bag has room to hang and drip 
into a bowl, has been the most successful arrange- 
ment I have ever found for this purpose, although a 
very good device, with cheesecloth bag, may be pur- 
chased and attached to a bowl. Do not squeeze the 
jelly bag if you wish the jelly bright and sparkling, 
or you . may do so and boil the juices separately, 
making a jelly not quite so bright and clear. 

Where no water Is added to fruits, bring the juice 
to the boiling point for five minutes, never boiling 
hard, either with or without sugar. Have an equal 



150 Practical Food Economy 

amount of sugar heating in a moderate oven, being 
very careful not to melt or brown. Stir this into 
the boiling juice until the sugar is dissolved, bring 
to the boiUng point, and test a Httle in a cold dish, 
when it should be done. If not quite ready, how- 
ever, continue easy but steady boiling, and test every 
minute, skimming carefully. If water has been 
added when cooking the fruit, the strained juice 
must be boiled steadily from ten to twenty minutes 
for evaporation of moisture, then add heated sugar 
and proceed as above outlined. When fruit has 
matured under a great amount of sunshine, I have 
frequently squeezed the fruit and dripped the juice 
until clear. Heat the sugar as directed and stir 
into this juice until all is dissolved. It should jelly 
at once, and is then ready to be poured into glasses. 

When ready, pour into hot sterilized glasses, and 
place in a sunny window in a room where there is 
no dust, or cover with pieces of glass or cheesecloth 
until well set. When cold, cover with melted paraffin 
poured over the top to the depth of a quarter of an 
inch. Paste label on the side of glass and store in a 
very cool, dark place. 

This recipe for jellies will cover currant, currant- 
raspberry, raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, cur- 
rant, or other acid fruits, underripe or green grapes, 
and gooseberries. Large fruits, such as plums, 
apples, quinces, crab apples, etc., require water while 
cooking. To eight quarts of crab apples or apples 
(washed and quartered) use about four quarts of 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 151 

water. There should be about three quarts of juice, 
and finish as for any other jelly. 

A method very much approved by many house- 
keepers is to squeeze the juice through a fruit press, 
drip in cheesecloth bag, heat to boihng point, and 
can. Then, whenever it is convenient and the 
weather cooler, the juices may be reheated, sugar 
added, and the jelly made under more comfortable 
conditions than in the summer time. The fruit 
flavor is more pronounced when jelly is freshly made 
than after standing for several months, hov/ever, 
and in the case of grape jelly is much less apt to 
"candy" or "sugar." When sugar is expensive or 
scarce In the summer, but fruit plentiful, it is always 
a good plan to can the fruit juices and make into 
jelly in the winter, when the price of sugar is lowered. 

The juice of currants may be canned and, when 
raspberries are in season, the desired quantity of 
raspberry juice added to the canned currant juice for 
jelly, using one pint of raspberry juice to three pints 
of currant juice, or any other desired proportion, 
and proceed as directed for jelly making. 

The main thing to remember Is that wet or dry 
seasons change the quality of fruit, as previously 
stated, and that is frequently the reason for so-called 
"good" or "bad luck" In jelly making. In a dry 
season, with plenty of sunshine, more sugar and less 
moisture are developed — then lessen sugar and boil- 
ing. In wet weather the reverse is true — less 
sugar and more moisture are in the fruit. 



152 Practical Food Economy 

To be a good jelly maker, knowledge of fruits and 
their acids, as well as of climatic conditions, is neces- 
sary, with accuracy and close attention during the 
process of boiling. 

Store Preserves for the Winter 

There is nothing more natural or instinctive than 
the act of storing away and preparing for the cold 
weather. One has only to watch the squirrels and 
rabbits and other animals to see how they store for 
the days when food is not to be had for their picking. 
I know what the average apartment dweller will say : 
"I have no place for storing fruits for the winter. 
If I put them down in my locker, it is too warm ; 
if I have them in my kitchen, it is too warm. Why, 
I can hardly keep a peck of potatoes." 

Every word of this is true, and every apartment- 
house builder should plan for one cool closet where 
preserved fruit and vegetables may be kept without 
danger of spoiling. If every housekeeper had such 
a closet, more supplies could be laid in while they 
were cheap and plentiful in the markets. If we are 
obliged to purchase from day to day, regardless of 
the gradual rise in the market prices during the 
winter and spring, we know we shall have to pay 
more and conserve more economically. I believe 
if every woman would readjust her kitchen and 
pantry or linen cupboards, she would be able to 
find at least one spare shelf near the floor which 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 153 

would be cool, ventilated, and provide sufficient room 
for storing preserved foods for months in advance. 
That is one way every woman in the home can do 
her "bit" to keep prices of foods at a reasonable 
price. The only economy for her is to go back to 
the old custom of storing away for the winter, 
utilizing every particle of fruit or vegetables in pres- 
ervation. The cost is small compared with having 
to buy every time they are needed. Much of the 
difficulty of the high prices of foods could be over- 
come if we could get back to the good old custom of 
storing away for the winter by canning, preserving, 
jelly making, pickling, and drying fruits and vege- 
tables. 

Tomatoes are usually plentiful and cheap, and 
yet I wonder how many housekeepers store by enough 
for the winter in cans for stewing, soups, and sauces, 
catsup, chili sauce, and pickles. They cost little to 
make and dwindle the allowance very fast when 
they have to be bought every time they are wanted. 

AMBER MARMALADE 

I grapefruit i orange 

I lemon Water 

Sugar 

Utensils, Paring knife, measuring cup, mixing 
bowl, wooden spoon, jelly glasses, saucepan, or pre- 
serving kettle. 

Directions. Cut the fruit very, very thin, reject- 
ing nothing but seeds and cores. Measure the fruit. 



154 * Practical Food Economy 

and add to it three times the quantity of water. 
Let stand in an earthen dish over night. In the 
morning, boil ten minutes. Let stand another 
night. The second morning, add equal quantity of 
sugar, and boil steadily until it jellies. This will 
usually make twelve jelly glasses of marmalade, 
according to size of fruit. Stir as little as possible 
so as to keep fruit in shape. 

Pickling Time 

" Sugar and spice and all things nice." 

Never did I realize how susceptible we all are to 
the delicious odors which arise while cooking "spicy" 
things, as when passing one of the greatest pickling 
and preserving establishments in the world in Lon- 
don one summer. No matter if we had just finished 
a meal, it made us hungry just to smell these " spicy" 
goodies. It was a question in our minds whether or 
not we would "pass", as it seemed by far more 
satisfying to loiter around where we could feast 
on these delicious odors. 

The same is true in the home; the only trouble 
is that many women have been afraid some of the 
odors from cooking would not be confined in the 
kitchen, but meet the family or friends at the front 
door. Let it travel sometimes, for it is a very 
good way to draw the family home, and they all 
like it. 

One day last fall, while we were making pickles. 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 155 

a little cash boy opened the cooking-school door and 
stood looking in for a minute. Finally he said, 
"Gee! this smells like home !" Just the atmosphere 
we like to have around our kitchen and lecture 
auditorium. 

Pickles are made from various fruits and vege- 
tables, such as peaches, pears, sweet apples, citron, 
watermelon rind, cucumbers (ripe and green), cauli- 
flower, beans, peppers, and carrots. These may be 
sweet or sour as desired, and various mixtures and 
spices added which are best adapted for flavoring 
the particular fruit or vegetable being pickled. If 
sweet, the sirup should be cooked until rich; in 
fact, pickling is really preserving, with the addition 
of spices and vinegar. 

For sour pickles, use only the best pure cider or 
white vinegar; never boil it, but scald only and 
pour over the pickles hot or cold. If the vinegar is 
too strong, it will make the pickles soft, or they 
will wrinkle and shrink. If there is any doubt, 
add one third water. Use a wooden spoon for any 
stirring. 

A small piece of horse-radish placed in each jar 
prevents mold. 

Buy only the best and purest of spices if a finely 
flavored pickle is desired. If this is not done, the 
pickles do not retain the flavor of spice long. 

Have on hand, ready for use, white wine or pickling 
vinegar; whole and ground spices, such as cinna- 
mon, cloves, allspice ; whole mustard seed, cloves ; 



156 Practical Food Economy 

celery seed ; mace ; bay leaves ; raisins ; lemons ; 
ginger root ; garlic ; tiny white onions ; brown and 
white sugar. 

To these materials should be added the necessary 
utensils and jars. And one final word of warning: 
Do not wait until they are all over the fire and then 
discover shortages of the necessary spices and vine- 
gar. Be ready when pickling time comes. 

ICE WATER PICKLES 

3 dozen cucumbers 2 quarts vinegar 

I bunch celery i cup brown sugar 

3 onions ^ cup salt 

Utensils. Large bowl, vegetable knife, saucepan, 
measuring cup, jars, tablespoon, vegetable brush. 

Directions. Wash the cucumbers and celery with 
the vegetable brush and soak in ice water for two 
hours. Have the jars clean and ready for use. 
Slice a few pieces of onion into each jar. Quarter 
the cucumbers, cutting and arranging them length- 
wise in the jars. Add a few stalks of celery and a 
tablespoonful of mustard seed. If the vinegar is 
very strong, dilute it with one third water and to 
the given amount (diluted) add the salt and sugar, 
set over the fire in the saucepan, and bring just to 
the boiling point. When cool, pour over the cucum- 
bers in the jars and seal. A little piece of horse- 
radish will insure against any molding. Select 
cucumbers about the size used for dill pickles, that 
is, a little below a medium size. If these pickles 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 157 

are to be used in a short time, turn hot vinegar over 
them. If very sweet pickles for fruits and ripe 
melons are desired, more sugar and spices may be 
used, and the sirup reheated each day for four or 
five days and poured over hot. 

DILL PICKLES 

Make a brine which is strong enough to bear an 
egg, then add half as much more water as you have 
brine. Wash the cucumbers in cold water. In a 
stone jar place a layer of cucumbers, a layer of 
grape leaves, and a layer of dill, using leaves and 
stems. Fill the jar up in this way. Pour the brine 
over all and cover first with a cloth and then with 
a plate, putting a weight on top of the plate. The 
cloth must be taken off and rinsed out clean fre- 
quently, as in making sauerkraut. 

SALTED CUCUMBERS 

Select a uniform size of cucumbers for salting, 
preferably small or medium size. In the bottom of 
a large jar, put a layer of coarse salt about one 
quarter inch deep, then a layer of clean cucumbers 
as free from blemish as possible. Repeat layers of 
salt and cucumbers, and so continue until all are 
used. Place a board or plate with stone or weight 
on top to keep the pickles in the brine. Pour over 
one quart of water. If cucumbers are picked from 
your own vines, do this morning or evening, lifting 
the cover and proceeding as directed in the beginning ; 



158 Practical Food Economy 

when full, place horse-radish or cabbage leaves and 
cloth before replacing the cover. The leaves keep 
them from molding, and the cloth absorbs the scum. 

These will keep a year or more and when ready to 
use, remove stone and cloth. Rinse well. Take 
out the required amount of pickles and return cloth 
cover and weight. Soak cucumbers for three days 
in cold water, changing the water each day. Heat 
as much vinegar as necessary to cover, with bay 
leaves and cloves, add cucumbers, and cook until 
they come to a boil. Drain, put into a crock, 
cover with fresh cold vinegar and chopped horse- 
radish. Ready to use in a few days. 

String beans, corn, and green tomatoes, whole or 
sliced, may be prepared in precisely the same manner. 

PICKLED ONIONS 

Select the small white button onion and peel. 
Scald them in salt and water until tender. Put 
them when drained into wide-mouthed jars and 
pour over them hot spiced vinegar as directed in 
the cabbage recipe. When cold, seal. Keep in a 
dry, coolj dark place. 

SPICED GRAPES 

7 pounds grapes i teaspoonful cinnamon 

4I pounds sugar i teaspoonful cloves 

I pint vinegar I teaspoonful allspice 

Directions. Take the pulp from the grapes, re- 
serving the skins. Boil the pulp and rub through 



Conservation of Fruits and Vegetables 159 

a colander to get out the seeds. Then add the skins 
to the strained pulp and boil with the sugar and 
vinegar and spices for about thirty minutes, or until 
it begins to thicken and jelly. This is fine with 
meats. 

PICKLED PURPLE CABBAGE 

Cut the cabbage into quarters and then again, 
and steam or cook in boiling salted water until 
tender. Have ready a sweet spiced vinegar, one 
cup of brown sugar to each quart of vinegar, and 
any spices to suit the taste. If ground tie in cheese- 
cloth bag, and pour while hot over the cabbage. 
Seal in jars or cover tightly, and it is good to use in 
a day or two. A few sliced beets add to the color, 
and then when some pickled eggs are desired, hard 
boil them and let stand several hours in the cabbage 
vinegar. The color will be beautiful, and the eggs 
will have a very tart taste and may be used for salads. 

GREEN TOMATO PICKLES 

I peck green tomatoes i tablespoonful allspice 

6 large onions i tablespoonful cinnamon 

6 red peppers i teaspoonful cloves 

I cup sugar i tablespoonful mustard 

3 pints vinegar 

Directions. Wash and slice the tomatoes into a 
large bowl or crock. Sprinkle salt between each 
layer. Let stand overnight. In the morning, 
drain off all the liquor from them. Put a layer of 
tomatoes into the large preserving kettle, then a 



160 Practical Food Economy 

layer of the sliced onions and the red peppers chopped 
up coarsely. Add sugar and spice and turn over 
the vinegar and boil until tender. If this is not 
quite enough vinegar to cover, add more, and if 
very strong, dilute with one third water. 



CHAPTER VI 

USE OF FRUITS IN SEASON 
Oranges and Lemons for Spring 

There is not a woman in the world who does not 
desire a beautiful complexion. One often will spend 
from fifteen minutes to half an hour a day on her 
face with massage, cold cream, and tonics, while 
she fails almost universally to take into account the 
inside of her body which is responsible for her good 
or bad color. 

A good clear skin means that the machinery of 
the body is clean and in fine working condition. 
The use of oranges and lemons will accomplish this 
purpose, for oranges and lemons more than any 
other citrus fruits are utilized by the liver, kidneys, 
bowels, and skin in an effort to keep the system 
clear. The juice of half a lemon in a glass of water 
(some physicians recommend hot water) every 
morning for two or three weeks will give better re- 
sults in stirring up a sluggish liver than half a dozen 
lemons at irregular intervals. 

These juices are germicides and help to destroy 
many of the minute organisms that cause various 

i6i 



162 Practical Food Economy 

diseases ; while the bulk of the pulp absorbs and 
carries the poison away with it. 

Eminent physicians are already advocating the 
fruit cure for the strong drink habit, as it over- 
comes in a natural way the abnormal craving for 
intoxicants, while preserves, jams, sweet pickles, and 
highly spiced food cause fermentation in the body 
and create a restless craving which demands stimu- 
lants. At all functions where cocktails are usually 
served, try for the spring months, at least, serving a 
glass of fresh orange juice instead. 

Some people who have recently returned from a 
trip to California tell me that at the hotels where 
they were stopping, orange juice was served at meals 
in pitchers and carafes, and as a refreshing pleasant 
drink any time during the day ; and never anywhere 
had they seen women with such beautiful com- 
plexions. 

Doctor Harvey W. Wiley says: "I do not think 
anything I have ever said about a diet is too strong 
to say about oranges and lemons. Even people in 
straitened circumstances should watch when they 
are cheap and plentiful, and use them freely, not 
only in the spring but all of the time." These fruits 
can be served in a greater variety of ways than any 
other known in the market, and the flavor is liked 
by men, women, and children. 

Get the habit to-day of using plenty of oranges 
and lemons, either as beverages or made into fruit 
salads, fruit jellies, molded with gelatin, lemon or 



Use of Fruits in Season 163 

orange pie, fillings for cakes, cookies, flavorings, 
frostings, puddings, souflles, ices, ice cream, mar- 
malades, cocktails (fruit), candied peel, and sauces. 
The shells may be scooped out and used for fancy 
cases. As a garnish for oysters, fish, meats, omelets, 
these fruits have never met their equal. 

Plain Pastry and Berry Pie 

"Truly one might almost be led to think that the mind is 
in the stomach, and not in the brain, for we look at the whole 
world through rose-colored or blue glasses, according to the 
way we succeed in digesting what we eat." 

— Selected. 

It is said "the proof of the pudding is in the eat- 
ing of it", but with pies, whether they are the kind 
which require "the hatchet", or the tender flaky 
variety, the proof may be discovered long before 
they are eaten. 

The conditions under which pastry is made, the 
materials, — flour and fat, — the handling and bak- 
ing all enter very largely (almost more than in any 
other baking unless it is bread) into the success or 
failure of a pie. 

In the first place, the one who is making the 
pastry should set some standard as to taste and flaki- 
ness, and then work to accomplish this end. 

The materials should include always a pastry flour ; 
that is, a flour made from winter wheat, which 
makes a much more tender pastry than bread 
flour, which is largely spring wheat. This is abso- 



164 Practical Food Economy 

lutely essential for a perfect pastry. The fat should 
never be all lard ; it is too heavy and hard for most 
digestive organs, and should be combined with 
good, sweet butter, half and half, when used. Or a 
good vegetable fat, of which there are now many 
varieties on the market, may be used. 

Be careful of compounds which are bought for 
lard. Pay a little more, if necessary, but buy a 
pure kettle-rendered leaf lard. There are good vege- 
table fats, such as oleomargarine, nut margarine, 
etc., which may be used and are easily digested. 
They are made from refined cottonseed oil or cocoa- 
nut oil, and are absolutely free from animal fats. 
These also may be combined with good, sweet 
butter, as it is from this fat that we get our flavor, 
which is so essential to plain or flaky pastry. 

Flour and fat should be cut together rather than 
rubbed with the hands. 

Everything should be cold. Make the pastry the 
day before, or several hours before using, if possible ; 
put it into a bowl, cover, and set in the refrigerator. 
It is through the expansion of this cold air (which has 
been incorporated in the pastry, both in the making 
and standing in the refrigerator) in a hot oven 
which gives the flaky quality to a perfect pie. 

A perforated pie pan almost invariably insures 
just as crispy a bottom as an upper crust; in fact, 
a pie which has a soggy bottom crust should never 
be eaten ; and if this has been the experience of the 
housekeeper, she should not stop experimenting until 



Use of Fruits in Season 165 

this difficulty is overcome, or she should stop mak- 
ing pies, as they are most indigestible when served 
in this manner. When taken from the oven, always 
stand them on a wire rack or a cake cooler, which 
allows the air to circulate entirely around the pie; 
this means dry crust on the bottom. 

Such a pie with a good wholesome filling can be 
eaten occasionally without harm by the average 
healthy person. 

PLAIN PASTRY 

3 cups pastry flour i teaspoonful salt 

I cup lard or vegetable fat i teaspoonful sugar 

f cup butter Ice water 

Utensils. Flour sifter, chopping or pastry knife, 
measuring cup, spatula, pastry board, rolling pin, 
measuring spoon, tablespoon, mixing bowl. 

Directions. Measure the flour, sugar, and salt 
into the flour sifter. Sift all into the bowl, measure 
the shortening — butter and lard or vegetable fat — 
and add to flour, cutting well together with the chop- 
ping knife. When well cut in, but not too fine, 
gradually add the water, being careful as fast as 
softened to push to one side, pouring the water 
each time in a dry place. Add only enough water 
to mix all together, and lift on to the molding board, 
which has been lightly sprinkled with flour. Pat 
with a rolling pin and then roll lightly from you. 
Turn and roll again, and so continue until you have 
the desired thickness and size for your present use. 



166 Practical Food Economy 

This pastry is better and easier to handle after 
standing covered in the refrigerator several hours 
before using. 

RHUBARB PIE 

2 cups rhubarb i tablespoonful lemon juice 

f cup sugar i egg (small) 

I tablespoonful (level) flour Butter 

Utensils. Measuring cup, tablespoon, pastry 
board, rolling pin, knife or spatula, pie pan. 

Directions. Wash and cut young, fresh rhubarb 
in small pieces without peeling. Measure the sugar 
and add the flour to this, mixing well. Beat the egg 
only until mixed, and add with the sugar mixed to 
the rhubarb and lemon juice. Stir all well together 
and turn on to the bottom crust in pie pan, dotting 
with bits of butter. Brush the top edges with cold 
sweetened water. Roll the upper crust to cover, 
with vents cut for escaping steam, and press down 
on the bottom crust. Trim off the edges, and then 
with a thin knife loosen the bottom crust all the 
way round from the edge of the pan. Then in the 
baking, when the expansion comes, both crusts 
expand together, and no juice runs out of the pie. 
Bake about thirty minutes. 

STRAWBERRY PIE 

In all berry pies the main thing is to have a crisp, 
flaky crust and the juice rich and plentiful in the 
pie. If the same care is given as directed in the 
"Rhubarb Pie", I am sure there will be no failures. 



Use of Fruits in Season 167 

Very fine bread or cracker crumbs are frequently- 
substituted for the flour, or the crust may be baked 
on the inverted pie pan, filled with sweetened 
berries, and meringue baked on top if desired. 

LEMON PIE 

Juice and rind of i lemon 3 tablespoonfuls flour 

I cup sugar i tablespoonful melted butter 

I cup milk 2 eggs 

I teaspoonful salt 

Utensils. Lemon squeezer, measuring cup, meas- 
uring spoon, bowl, double boiler, egg beater, grater. 

Directions. Beat the yolks, and add to them 
sugar, flour, and salt, mixed well together. Beat 
again. Add lemon juice, grated rind, milk, and 
butter. Cook in a double boiler until of the desired 
thickness. Turn into a baked, flaky, rich pastry 
shell and cover with the well-beaten whites, mixed 
with two tablespoons of sugar. Brown in a slow oven. 
One half cup of fine white bread crumbs or cracker 
crumbs may be used instead of flour, but never use 
cornstarch, as it makes a close heavy custard. 

APPLE PIE 

3 apples (medium size) J teaspoonful cinnamon or 

^ cup sugar ^ as much nutmeg 

I teaspoonful butter 2 tablespoonfuls water 

Utensils. Measuring cup, measuring spoon, vege- 
table knife, tablespoon, pie pan. 

Directions. Roll the first half of pastry and 
place on pie pan. 



168 Practical Food Economy 

Pare and slice the apples thin on this crust; 
cover with sugar, butter broken in bits, cinnamon, 
and water, if the apples are not juicy. 

Prepare the upper crust and proceed the same as 
for rhubarb or berry pie, as it is most important that 
apple pie does not run over and lose its moisture. 

Bake in a quick oven for fifteen minutes and a 
slow oven for the next thirty minutes. 

The secret of a good apple pie is to choose apples 
with a fine flavor that will cook easily and keep in 
the juice. 

Or, if preferred, prepare the crust and apples as 
above, then make a mixture of the sugar, one table- 
spoon of butter, three tablespoons of water, and 
one tablespoon of flour. Stir over fire until it 
thickens, and then pour over the apples. Cover 
with the upper crust and bake. 

Shortcakes 

Sometimes, within the past few years, it has been 
diflicult to recognize the good old-fashioned short- 
cake in the oversweet and too-much decorated ones 
served for dessert. But it is perhaps just as well 
to have variety even in shortcakes ; usually they 
are made with the rich, unsweetened biscuit dough 
which boasts of several variations in sweetness, rich- 
ness, and flavor; also with angel and sponge cake 
which has no shortening, but is very tender and a 
little more dainty and sweet than the other variety. 



Use of Fruits in Season 169 

In any event, real shortcake should be genuinely 
delicious and, with our standards for wholesome liv- 
ing, made only of the best materials. 

In making shortcakes where there is a helper in 
the kitchen, it is baked while the family are eating 
their dinner. Then it comes to the table fresh and 
warm. Where there is no one to assist in the cook- 
ing, the shortcake should be put into the oven when 
the dinner is served. Then it will come out of the 
oven when the meal is about half finished. It will 
take only a few moments to butter it and add the 
fruit, so that it can be left in a warm place ready to 
serve at the proper time. 

The preparation of the filling is as important as 
the crust. It should be neither cold nor hot ; neither 
too wet nor too dry. Prepare the berries before mak- 
ing the shortcake by washing a few at a time in a 
colander before hulling. Drain. Reserve a few of 
the finest with the hulls on for garnishing; also a 
few others to be cut in pieces. Sweeten the re- 
mainder to taste. 

When the cake is done, put a teaspoonful of 
butter into a saucepan with the berries and sugar, 
and crush with a wire masher enough to start the 
juice nicely. Stir until only warmed all through. 
Add the cut berries and spread between the layers 
of the shortcake and on top. Garnish with the 
whole berries and green leaves. Serve with plain 
or whipped cream ; or with very little cream, beaten 
whites of eggs, and melted marshmallows. 



170 Practical Food Economy 

A delicious dessert, which some call strawberry 
shortcake, is made from a regular sponge cake batter 
baked in two separate layers and put together with 
strawberries and whipped cream ; or it can be baked 
in a whole loaf, the top carefully cut off and some 
of the inside scooped out, then filled with sweetened 
strawberries and whipped cream. The top is again 
put over and boiled icing is made. The whole cake 
is iced and decorated with the whole strawberries. 
This should be served as soon as put together and 
is a most deUcious but rich dessert. 

SHORTCAKE NUMBER 1 

3 cups pastry flour 3 teaspoonfuls sugar 

I cup butter ^ teaspoonful salt 

4I teaspoonfuls baking powder Milk 

Utensils. Flour sifter, chopping knife or pastry 
cutter, measuring cup, measuring spoon, 2 pie pans, 
pastry board. 

Directions. Measure the dry ingredients and sift 
two or three times into the bowl. Cut the butter 
into the flour with a chopping knife. Add the milk 
gradually, about three fourths of a cup, until the 
dough is just moist enough to lay out with the 
hands on the board. This should be divided first 
into halves and then pressed to fit two pie pans. 
Bake in a quick oven twelve to fifteen minutes. 
SpHt and spread with butter which has been beaten 
and creamed as for cake. Put strawberries in be- 
tween and on top as directed. Never roll shortcake 



Use of Fruits in Season 171 

dough, but pat it, one half an inch thick, into shape 
to fit the pans. If two layers are desired, bake in 
one pan, with bits of butter and light sprinkhng of 
flour on top of the first layer before the second one 
is put on, then they will separate easily. 

SHORTCAKE NUMBER 2 

3 cups flour i teaspoonful salt 

J cup sugar i egg 

I cup butter Few grains nutmeg 
Milk 

Utensils. Flour sifter, measuring cup, egg beater, 
biscuit cutter, pastry board, biscuit pan. 

Directions. Mix and sift all the dry ingredients 
together two or three times and add the egg well 
beaten with about half a cup of milk. Proceed 
exactly as for Shortcake Number i, but cut like 
biscuits. Lay them in the pan just touching each 
other, brush over with cream, sprinkle a very little 
granulated sugar over the top, and bake in a very 
quick oven. When done, split, add the prepared 
fruit in between and on top. Garnish around the 
edge and in the center on top with whipped cream 
and whole berries. 

Peaches and Plums 

Toward the end of July most of the berries have 
been at their best, but Nature provides well for that 
and brings us peaches, plums, pears, and CaKfornia 
grapes. 



172 Practical Pood Economy 

When fruit can be eaten in its ripe natural condi- 
tion, there is no better way of enjoying it, but every 
one cannot eat it without some of the acids being 
neutralized through cooking, so a few combinations 
with other food materials will furnish some fresh 
fruit dishes good to look upon and delicious in taste. 

For years we have known that apples were excel- 
lent baked, and as apple sauce, but only within two 
or three years have we tried peaches in the same 
manner and have been more than dehghted with 
results. 

BAKED PEACHES 

Rub a half dozen peaches well with a dry cloth 
and put them into a casserole. Make a sirup of 
one cup of sugar and a cup of water, boiling five 
minutes, and pour over the peaches ; add two thin 
slices of lemon, and a little grated nutmeg, or a clove 
or two stuck in each ; cover and bake until tender, 
about thirty to forty-five minutes. These are deli- 
cious for breakfast or lunch. Apples, pears, or 
bananas may be prepared in the same way. 

PEACH SAUCE 

Rub a dozen peaches with a cloth until smooth 
and clean and cut into pieces, putting stones and all 
into the double boiler. Let steam until tender and 
well heated through. Then rub through a colander, 
adding sugar to sweeten, and a little bit of butter 
and ground cloves or cinnamon. Serve with cottage 
pudding or wherever a fruit sauce is desired. 



Use of Fruits in Season 173 

PEACH ICE CREAM 

12 ripe peaches i teaspoonful vanilla 

1 pint cream i| cups granulated sugar 

2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice 

Utensils. Wire basket, vegetable knife, colander, 
double boiler, ice-cream freezer, tablespoon. 

Directions. Put half the sugar and cream over 
the fire in the double boiler until the sugar is dis- 
solved and the cream hot. Stand aside to cool. 
Put the peaches into a colander or wire basket, and 
dip for a moment into boiling water to loosen the 
skins. Remove the stones and press the peaches 
through the colander. Mix the remainder of the 
sugar with this pulp and add the lemon juice. When 
the cream is cold, add vanilla, turn into the freezer, 
and freeze. Remove the cover, add peaches, cover, 
and freeze again. Remove the dasher, pack, re- 
place the cover, being sure to put a cork in the 
top, and repack with ice and salt, cover with news- 
papers and blanket or carpet for one or two hours 
to ripen. 

PLUM CONSERVE 

5 pounds ripe plums 3 pounds oranges 

2 pounds seeded raisins 5 pounds sugar 

Utensils. Preserving kettle, scales, sharp knife, 
food chopper, jars or glasses. 

Directions. Wipe the plums, remove the stones, 
and cut in pieces ; chop the raisins, and wipe and 
cut the oranges in very thin slices. Turn all into 



174 Practical Food Economy 

the kettle with the sugar, and cook by simmering 
until it jellies or is the desired consistency. Cover 
as jelly. 

PLUM SALAD 

Wipe a dozen large, ripe plums, peel, and cut in 
halves. Arrange on crisp lettuce leaves, cavity side 
up, and fill with balls of cream cheese and pistachio 
nuts ; pour over French dressing made from lemon 
juice instead of vinegar. 

PLUM JELLY 

Blue or wild plums Gx anulated sugar 

Utensils. Preserving kettles (large and small), 
jelly bag, jelly glasses, paraffin, pan, wooden spoon. 

Directions. Wash the plums — the wild plums 
are best for jelly if you can get them. Put these 
into a large preserving kettle with only enough 
water to cover the bottom of the kettle. Cover 
and heat until the plums are soft and the juices are 
well started. Turn into the jelly bag and let drip 
until morning. Do not squeeze or the jelly will be 
cloudy. For every quart of this juice use the same 
amount of sugar. Put the juice into the small pre- 
serving kettle and boil twenty minutes, skimming 
well. Have the sugar heating in the oven, being 
careful not to melt it, and at the end of twenty 
minutes' boiling, add the sugar ; stir only until the 
sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boiling point and 
it is ready, in most instances, for the jelly glasses. 



Use of Fruits in Season 175 

But if it is not, boil until it is jelly. Jelly must 
boil continuously when once started. Stand in the 
sun and when cold, cover with melted paraffin. 
Rub the plum pulp through a colander, extracting 
all the pulp possible. Add one third as much sugar 
and for. each quart cook thirty minutes, and when 
nearly done add spices to taste. Turn into glasses 
or crocks and cover the same as jelly. Spread on 
bread in place of butter for sweet sandwiches. 

How TO Judge Watermelon and Cantaloupe 

"Fish still abitin', — some; but most 
Too hot for anything but layin' 
Jest do-less like, and watching clos't 
The tree tops and the squirrels playin' 
Their tail tips switched 'bove knot and limb, 
But keeping most in sequestration, 
Leavin* a big part to the imagination." 

— James Whitcomb Riley. 

Mr. Riley's little "do-less" verse has made us 
feel that all we need at the end of the day is a very 
large, red, juicy piece of watermelon which fits per- 
fectly with the time, place, and season. 

There is no other fruit perhaps, which causes so 
much envy or unrest in the breast of a small boy (or 
full grown one for that matter) as this melon. Its 
coming is watched and longed for, and when at last 
it is ripe, it is eagerly enjoyed, no matter what the 
conditions or surroundings be. In fact, if one has 
ever watched the small boy emerge from a melon 



176 Practical Food Economy 

patch with the choicest one he could find, break it 
open, and then nestle down in some fence corner to 
enjoy it, he would know that for this one fruit there 
is more than just an ordinary liking. It is a uni- 
versal favorite, and thousands and thousands of 
carloads are shipped to the cities each year from 
June to October by the countless growers of the 
various watermelon States. Watermelons ripen in 
different States at different intervals, so that through- 
out the entire summer and late fall, we are supplied 
with this luscious fruit. 

A trade journal recently gave the names of all the 
varieties and their special characteristics. But the 
variation comes through size and color very largely. 
In Iowa we used to grow a most delicious, sweet white 
melon, but its center is a deep blood red, and the 
meat the sweetest of any of the melons. It is called 
the "Sweetheart", and is a well-deserved favorite. 

Nothing, however, is more vexatious to the house- 
keeper than to order a melon and go to the trouble and 
expense of chilling it only to discover, when it has been 
cut open, that all time, money, and energy were wasted 
on an unripe or poor quality melon. It's true the 
grocer does not grow the melon, but he and all his 
clerks should be taught how to judge a good, ripe 
melon — whether watermelon or cantaloupe — from 
one which is green or of an inferior quality. But 
better still, learn to judge it yourself. This is a 
pretty good guide : Snap the melon in the center 
with the thumb and middle finger. If it is green 



Use of Fruits in Season 177 

there will be a hard, very clear sound, and very 
distinct. If the melon is ripe, the sound will be dull 
and thudlike. Plugging a melon, that is cutting a 
little cube out of it, was the old way of testing a 
melon and a perfectly sure one, but this cannot be 
done in our fruit stores. . 

Testing a cantaloupe is no easy matter, and I ven- 
ture to assert fully half of the melons purchased are 
unfit to eat when cut at home. Pressing on the end 
means nothing, when they have been pressed dozens 
of times during the day. Smell them. There should 
be an odor if they are ripe. Then take them in both 
hands and press gently ; if there is no spring what- 
ever, and they feel firm and hard, they are surely 
green. 

How TO Serve Watermelon 

Melons should be well chilled, and should be eaten 
slowly. Too much chilling of the stomach hinders 
digestion and causes many people to say, "I cannot 
eat watermelon." Eat it for lunch or between meals. 
It is often cut into balls with a French cutter, put 
into a freezer with a very little sugar and sherry, 
packed in ice and salt, and served as a cocktail. Cut 
in half and served with a tablespoon at the table 
makes a very comfortable and pretty way of serving 
it. If sliced, cut it thick rather than thin, as less 
of the sweet juice is lost while eating. 

Halves of cantaloupe may be partially filled with 
ice cream and watermelon balls arranged over the top. 



178 Practical Food Economy 

WATERMELON SHERBET 

2 quarts watermelon pulp and juice 2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice 

I cup sugar 2 tablespoonfuls sherry 

I cup chopped pecans 2 whites of eggs 

Utensils. Ice-cream freezer, measuring cup, table- 
spoon, tgg beater, food chopper. 

Directions. Chop fine the red pulp from a ripe 
melon, saving all the juice. Cook the sugar and 
half a cup of the juice together five minutes. When 
cold, add, with the chopped pecans and lemon juice. 
Turn into the freezer and freeze, turning the freezer 
slowly at first. When nearly done, add the well- 
beaten whites of the eggs and finish the freezing. 
Let ripen for one hour and serve in tall glasses which 
have been chilled. 

WATERMELON PICKLES 

7 pounds watermelon rind (peeled) 2 tablespoonfuls cinnamon 

4 pounds light brown sugar 2 teaspoonfuls ground allspice 

I pint cider vinegar I teaspoonful clove 

I ounce green ginger root i teaspoonful mace 

Utensils. Porcelain-lined kettle, teaspoon, scales, 
measuring cup, jars, paring knife. 

Directions. Divide the spices in three parts and 
tie up in muslin bags. Put the sugar and vinegar 
into the kettle; add the spice bags and ginger root 
broken into small pieces. Bring to a boil and put 
in the watermelon rind cut in about two-inch-long 
pieces, having soaked these in ice water several 
hours. Bring to a boil once more, remove from fire, 



Use of Fruits in Season 179 

cover, and let stand in a cool place twenty-four 
hours. Then take out the melon rind and let the 
sirup again come to a boil. Add the rind again 
and set away for another twenty-four hours. Do 
this daily for one week. The last time, bring all to 
a boil, simmer very gently ten minutes, and put 
away in jars. 

Do not think any part of this too much trouble, 
as results are good, and you will feel well repaid for 
the effort, which really takes only a few minutes 
each day. 

GRAPES 

There is no doubt about grapes being one of the 
great favorites in fall fruits. There is the long 
season in which we have fresh grapes, and we eat 
them all winter in delicious jellies, sirups, preserves, 
and conserves, besides the very necessary and de- 
licious grape juice which as a beverage for young, 
old, sick, or well is delicious and wholesome. 

If the true flavor of grapes is desired, get up some 
morning at 4 a.m. when grapes are ripening, and 
visit a vineyard. The fragrance in the fresh morning 
air from ripening grapes cannot be excelled by any 
fruit. 

They have the advantage also of being very nu- 
tritious, if we may use that term with fruit. (See 
x\twater's Chart, page 10.) Surely such fruit is 
worth eating plentifully while fresh ; and be sure and 
put up plenty of grape juice for winter and summer 



180 Practical Food Economy 

use. If one is fortunate enough to have his own 
vines, the cost is only a trifle. It may be put up 
with or without sugar, although the reader has only 
to look at the above-mentioned formula to see that 
grapes are largely supplied with natural sugars, so 
sweetening is really unnecessary. 

GRAPE JUICE I 

Pick over ripe, sound Concord grapes and remove 
them from the stems ; mash, strain them first 
through a fine sieve or fruit press and then through 
a jelly bag of two thicknesses of cheesecloth. Put 
the juice into an aluminum kettle and boil rapidly 
ten minutes. Have bottles clean and sterilized, 
bottle juice while hot, cork and, if necessary, seal, 
although most of the bottles purchased for sirups, 
catsups, etc., have patent stoppers. 

GRAPE JUICE II 

I cup grapes f cup sugar 

Boiling water 

Wash, stem and measure the grapes into a clean 
sterilized quart jar, add sugar and fill with boiHng 
water. Put on rubber and seal at once. Tastes like 
the juice from fresh grapes. 

GRAPE SIRUP 

Select fully ripened Concord grapes, mash thor- 
oughly, and let stand in a warm place or the sun, 



Use of Fruits in Season 181 

covered with glass, for a day or two. Then pour 
into a bag and let drain without squeezing. To 
each pint of this juice add two pounds or four measur- 
ing cups of granulated sugar. Put over the fire in a 
double boiler and stir until the sugar is dissolved 
and hot. Set directly over the fire at the last moment 
so it just reaches the boiling point. Remove at once 
from the fire, bottle and seal as in the Grape Juice 
recipe. 

GRAPE CONSERVE 

3 pints Concord grapes i cup English walnuts 

3 pints granulated sugar I pound seeded raisins 

I pint water 2 oranges 

Utensils. Saucepan, measuring cup, sharp knife, 
colander, food chopper or chopping bowl, knife, 
jelly glasses or jars. 

Directions. Press the pulp from the skin of the 
grapes and put them into the saucepan ; heat a few 
minutes until soft, then press through the colander. 
Put back into the saucepan with the skins, sugar, 
water, raisins, and oranges sliced very thin. Cook 
about thirty minutes. Add the chopped nuts just 
before taking from the fire. Pour into small jars 
or jelly glasses and cover. 

A delicious spiced conserve is made by using the 
same amount of sugar, any desired spices, and i 
cup of water, f cup vinegar, 2 teaspoonfuls cinna- 
mon, I teaspoonful cloves, and | teaspoonful all- 
spice. Be careful not to cook too long. 



182 Practical Food Economy 

GRAPE JELLY 

Half-ripe grapes Sugar 

Utensils. Saucepan, jelly bag, measuring cup, 
jelly glasses, large kettle. 

Directions. Wash the grapes and pick them from 
the stems into a large kettle ; half cover with cold 
water, cover the kettle, and set over the fire. Bring 
slowly to the boiling point so as to extract all the 
juice possible. When the grapes crack open and 
the juice seems well started, remove from the fire 
and turn pulp and juice into a jelly bag which is 
made of two thicknesses of cheesecloth. Suspend 
this from a hook (a ten-cent harness hook screwed 
over the kitchen sink is good) and let drip into a 
bowl. If more juice is desired, squeeze the bag 
into a separate bowl. This makes a jelly not quite 
so bright and sparkling. Boil a quart of this juice 
at a time in the saucepan for twenty minutes. Have 
three fourths as much sugar as juice warming in the 
oven ; add when the juice is boiled, and it should 
jelly at once. If not, boil until it does (without 
stopping). Test by taking out a little in a dish 
and set on ice to see if it jellies. 

Half teaspoonful of cloves and one tablespoonful 
of cinnamon to each quart of juice makes a nice 
spiced jelly for meats. For this use the juice which 
has been squeezed from the bag. 

Remember that when a season has been unusually 
dry, with an abundance of sunshine, there is more 



Use of Fruits in Season 183 

sugar and less water in the fruit. An equal amount 
of sugar then is not necessary. An apple or two cut 
up with the grapes when cooking will change the 
flavor a trifle, but will lessen the danger of crystals 
forming in the jelly. 

Apples the King of Fruits 

The apple is without question the king of fruits, 
having everything in its favor for popularity. It is 
the exceptional person who cannot eat apples raw 
or cooked, and they are delicious either way ; in fact, 
whether fresh, evaporated, or canned, the apple is a 
wholesome food, easily prepared, attractive and 
palatable at all times. 

One of the fine things about the apple is its rare 
keeping qualities, so that people in the most remote 
corners of the earth are able to take advantage of 
its great food value. Most fruits are classified as 
"Flavor Fruits" and "Nutritive Fruits", but the 
apple comes under both of these heads. (See At- 
water's Table of Food Values, page lo.) 

From a dietetic standpoint the most important 
function of the apple is that of furnishing mineral 
salts and organic acids, but it has a nutritive value 
as well, furnished by the carbohydrates present; 
and as the fruit ripens, the starch changes to sugar. 

The apple has a medicinal value if eaten at the 
beginning or between meals. It will often satisfy 
a craving for strong drink when nothing else will, 



184 Practical Food Economy 

and when one has been obliged to live on heavier 
foods and more of them than usual, a breakfast 
should be made entirely of apples. 

In the fall and early winter they are at their best, 
but during the latter part of the summer we begin 
to have the early harvest apples which add much 
to our bill of fare. In the summer and fall they need 
nothing to add to their flavor, but in late winter 
and spring, spices and other seasoning are necessary. 

There is positively no waste to a good apple. Even 
the paring and core may be utilized for jelly. The 
Red Astrachan makes the prettiest color. It has a 
goodly amount of pectose, which accounts for ease 
with which it jellies, and is used in combination 
with other fruits for jelly. 

Always cook apples in earthen or granite utensils 
and use silver or wooden spoons for stirring, as the 
acidity of the apple acts quickly on metal and the 
taste of the apple is changed. 

There are such a variety of apples for good sauce 
and baking that it is an easy matter to settle upon 
one's favorite flavor. The ones most common are 
Baldwin, Greening, Red Astrachan, Jonathan, King, 
Maiden Blush, Rome Beauty, and Spitzenberg from 
the far West; any one of these will give a great 
variety in the daily menus. 

APPLE SAUCE 

Wash clean perfect apples, quarter, and slice. 
Put into a granite pan with only enough water to 



Use of Fruits in Season 185 

cook. When done, rub through a colander, sweeten 
with white or light-brown sugar, a small piece of 
butter, and a very little grating of nutmeg. Serve 
cold. It is very wasteful to peel apples unless after- 
ward some use is to be made of the peelings. 

ROSY-CHEEKED APPLES 

10 apples i cup chopped almonds 

I cup sugar Currant jelly 

I cup water Heavy cream 

Utensils. Apple corer, measuring cup, saucepan. 

Directions. Wash, core, and cook red apples in 
the sugar and water until a fork will pierce them in 
the hollow center. Set the cooked apples on a 
serving dish and cut the skin down in quarters, 
peeling it off and scraping off every bit of red and 
putting it back on to the cheek of the apple. Blanch 
and chop fine the almonds. Cook f of a cup of sugar 
to a caramel in a dry pan ; when the sugar begins 
to turn a light brown, add the nuts, and cook until 
all are a caramel. Put a spoonful of these on top 
of each apple around the opening and the jelly in the 
center. Beat the cream until firm, flavor, and serve 
around the apples. 

APPLE FRUIT COCKTAIL 

Peel large apples with fine flavor, and with a 
potato scoop, cut out small balls, dropping them into 
a little water with plenty of lemon juice added to 
keep them white. Prepare a mixture of grapefruit, 



186 Practical Food Economy 

pineapple, and bananas, and put into the cocktail 
glasses; add a few of the apple balls, pour over 
all the cooled juice left from the fruit and peelings 
boiled down with sugar. Serve at once. 

BLUSHING APPLES 

Wash, core, and cook red apples in boiling water 
until soft. Have the water half surround the apples 
and turn often. Remove the skins and scrape, 
putting the "red" back on the "cheeks" of the 
apples. To a pint of the water add one cup of sugar, 
grated rind of one lemon, and juice of one orange. 
Simmer until reduced to about half a cup. Cool 
and pour over the apples. Serve with cream sauce. 

CREAM SAUCE 

I egg I cup powdered sugar 

^ cup heavy cream i teaspoonful vanilla 

Directions. Beat the white of egg until stiff; 
add the well-beaten yolk and gradually the sugar. 
Beat the cream until stiif, combine the mixtures, 
flavor, and serve with apples. 

BROWN BETTY 

1 1 cups soft bread crumbs 4 teaspoonfuls melted butter or 

I cup sugar vegetable fat 

I pint chopped apples i teaspoonful cinnamon 

I cup chopped raisins | teaspoonful cloves 

Utensils. Pudding dish, measuring cup, measur- 
ing spoon, tablespoon. 



Use of Fruits in Season 187 

Directions, Pour the melted fat over the bread 
crumbs ; stir until the crumbs are evenly buttered. 
Put a layer of the crumbs into a well-greased pudding 
dish, mix the sugar, apples, raisins, cinnamon, and 
cloves. Put a layer of the apple mixture over the 
crumbs and alternate until all is used, finishing with 
crumbs. Cover closely and bake for three quarters 
of an hour in a moderate oven ; uncover and brown. 
Serve hot with hard sauce, or cold with cream. 

APPLE BUTTER 

Pare, core, and quarter the desired quantity of 
apples, allowing one third of sweet to two thirds 
of sour apples. Boil sweet cider until it is reduced 
one half. While the cider is boiling rapidly, add 
apples until the mixture is the desired thickness. 
Cook slowly, stirring constantly and skimming when 
necessary. When the apples begin to separate from 
the cider, take two pounds of sugar to each bushel 
of apples used ; add a little ground cinnamon and 
boil until it remains in a smooth mass, when a little 
is cooled. Usually one and one half bushels of 
apples are enough for one and one half gallons of 
boiled cider. Use parings for making vinegar. 

APPLES EN CASSEROLE 

Pare, core, and slice two quarts of apples and put 
in an earthen dish, alternately, with one and one 
half cups of sugar, and one fourth teaspoonful of 
cinnamon ; add one fourth cup of cold water, cover 



188 Practical Food Economy 

the dish, and bake in a moderate oven. Serve either 
hot or cold with cream. 

APPLE COBBLER 

Pare and quarter enough tart apples to fill a bak- 
ing dish three fourths full. Cover with a rich 
baking-powder biscuit dough made soft enough to 
stir ; spread it over the apples without rolling. Make 
several cuts in the center to allow the 'steam to es- 
cape. Bake for three quarters of an hour and serve 
hot with sugar and rich cream. 

CODDLED APPLES 

From tart, ripe apples of uniform size remove the 
cores. Place the fruit in the bottom of a porcelain 
kettle ; spread thickly with sugar and a little butter 
and cinnamon on each one ; cover the bottom of the 
kettle with water and allow the apples to simmer 
until tender. Remove to a dish and pour the 
sirup over the apples and serve cold. 

APPLE CUSTARDS 

Steam two large, tart apples that have been cored. 
Rub them through a sieve and add one cupful of 
milk, two teaspoonfuls of butter, one quarter of a 
cupful of sugar, and the yolks of four eggs. Turn 
the mixture into baking cups, stand them in hot 
water, and bake about twenty minutes. When they 
come from the oven, pile the beaten white of egg on 
top of each cup, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and 



Use of Fruits in Season 189 

place in the oven to brown slightly. Serve cold. This 
may also be served in baked pastry or patty shells. 

APPLE-SAUCE CAKE 

I cup sugar 2 cups flour 

I cup butter or vegetable fat i saltspoonful salt 
I cup raisins i| teaspoonfuls cinnamon 

I cup apple sauce | teaspoonful grated nutmeg 

I teaspoonful baking soda 

Utensils. Measuring cup, measuring spoon, mix- 
ing bowl, wooden spoon, loaf cake pan. 

Directions. Cream the butter and beat in the 
sugar; add the chopped raisins dredged with flour; 
add the salt, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg. Dis- 
solve the baking soda in a little warm water and 
stir into the unsweetened apple sauce, let it foam over 
into the other ingredients and beat thoroughly ; add 
two cups of flour and bake three quarters of an hour 
in a moderate oven. 

FRESH APPLE CUSTARD PIE 

I pint apple sauce i tablespoonful melted butter 

I quart sweet milk Pinch of salt 

4 eggs Grated nutmeg 

I tablespoonful cornstarch Juice of i lemon ' 

Grated rind of | lemon 

Utensils. Measuring cup, tablespoon, Qgg beater, 
pie pan. ■ 

Directions. Beat the eggs only until well mixed, 
add sugar, beat again. Rub cornstarch smooth in 
a little cold milk and add with all the other flavor- 
ings. Bake with under crust only. 



CHAPTER VII 

SERVICE FIRST 

What Shall I Feed my Children ? 

''Life's song, indeed, would lose its charm, 
Were there no babies to begin it ; 
A doleful place this world would be. 
Were there no little people in it." 

— John Greenleaf Whittier. 

What shall be the foods for children ? I know 
this is an important question, because at the close 
of almost every domestic science lecture I am greeted 
with a perfect volley of questions like these : "What 
food shall I give my two-year-old boy?" — "my 
five-year-old girl" — or "my ten-year-old child", 
as the case may be. Frequently I have heard this : 
"My child will not eat whole wheat bread or eggs or 
drink milk. He does not like this or that or the 
other thing." Not long ago a bright, intelligent 
woman was asking me what to do with her nine- 
year-old boy who would eat only the things he liked, 
and very few of those. Upon inquiry she said he 
was "well and strong." Later, as we talked, it 

190 



Service First 191 

developed that the boy was pale, anemic, and 
nervous, which surely does not indicate a healthy 
child. It had not occurred to her that if he were 
anemic he should be given the foods rich in iron, 
such as spinach, yolk of egg, asparagus, milk, and 
whole wheat bread, according to his age, and if he 
were nervous, he should be given the phosphorous 
foods, so that his nerves would have plenty of oppor- 
tunity for building, such as bran muffins, whole 
wheat muffins, thick dried-pea soup, oatmeal, onions, 
and celery, with plenty of milk during the teeth and 
bone-building age. No one food builds any par- 
ticular part of the body, but, as nourishing and build- 
ing foods are used, the whole body develops. But 
these mothers reply, after being answered, "What 
will you do when they refuse to eat the food and 
say they 'do not like it' ?" Here is exactly where 
the mother's ingenuity must come to her rescue. 
The child is not always capable of reasoning, and 
the busy mother cannot always take the time for it. 
But if she knows that Mary or John refuses to take 
milk or eggs, she can plan to have these ingredients 
served in soups or custards. The same is true of 
spinach, carrots, asparagus, and celery; all may be 
made into delicious soups with a thick piece of 
toasted whole wheat bread to disguise these vege- 
tables. Have the helping small in the beginning 
until they acquire the taste, and they will surely 
"Hke it." 

It is fooHsh for a parent to allow a child to discuss 



192 Practical Food Economy 

at the table what he likes or does not like. He is 
in no position to judge. He probably likes the 
things which have been placed before him often 
enough for him to become used to them. I don't 
beheve that unusually strong-flavored vegetables, 
such as tomatoes, parsnips, beets, and turnips, should 
ever be given to children. They will learn to choose 
these for themselves as they grow older. If good build- 
ing foods are included in the child's diet until he is 
eight, ten, or twelve years of age, St. Vitus' Dance, 
rickets, and other nerve diseases will not develop. 

Another plan which I know is used successfully 
with children is to know the food they should have 
and place a small amount, if it is new to them, on 
their plates. Do not say they must eat it. Better 
say nothing unless they ask questions. If it is not 
eaten, keep still. Repeat the same plan each and 
every day, and you will find they gradually taste a 
little, until they find it is not so "bad", and finally 
learn to eat it. That is the way most of us have 
learned to eat everything, so why be impatient 
with children 1 We were there once ourselves, and 
some men still make economy very hard for their 
wives by saying, "I don't like anything but a roast !" 

In a recent paper, I read a notice of a mother who 
had committed suicide because her child had St. 
Vitus' Dance. The real suicide happened long be- 
fore the child was born, when the woman was not 
eating proper food to make good blood, muscles, 
bone, hair, teeth, and nails while the child was sup- 



Service First 193 

posedly growing. Food starvation was, in all 
probability, the cause of the child's ailment. Na- 
ture provides that all the nutritional activities of 
the mother be directed to this growing child, and 
unless she provides good building food for herself 
and enough for this new-born baby, both will suffer 
injury from which neither may ever recover. If 
children are to be born healthy, mothers cannot be 
starved, and if this is provided for, with an increased 
addition of food for this growing child, then it would 
come into the world started right at least. And 
what an endless amount of suffering and Hves would 
be saved I 

Every one of our children has the right to an 
honest start in the world. Parents owe it to their 
children. It is not a question of money spent, but 
the result of a reasonable amount of study of food 
habits. Don't think it too soon to begin before 
they are born ; then as soon as they are old enough, 
they should be taught that eating is a serious duty 
in order to maintain health and a strong body. If 
adequate building foods, varied at proper intervals 
of a child's growth, are provided, the period from in- 
fancy to "teens" will be safeguarded. After that he 
is pretty safe to face the world and judge for himself. 

Every boy and girl knows that if they are to enter 
a game of any sort they must know the rules of that 
game or suffer defeat. Now the laws of nature are 
the rules of this game — the study of health and 
disease. You cannot miss it. There are many 



194 Practical Food Economy 

who will say, "This thing or the other thing does 
not hurt me," which may be true at the time; but 
many a game of baseball and football has been 
lost from the lack of knowing what to eat and hov/ 
to build the body for strength and endurance. 
However, even this Is being studied, and men who 
play national games or devote their time to business 
are better equipped for It physically and mentally 
than ever before, because of their better under- 
standing of the purpose of foods. 

Children's Menus 
5 to 9 Years 

The meals for children should be neither heavy 
nor light. The stomach should never be overloaded, 
so that digestion Is difficult. Then children may go 
to school Immediately after a meal, and the brain 
will be able to work. Train children to eat slowly, 
chewing every mouthful. Have them rise a little 
earlier In the morning If necessary, that they may 
not be hurried. As children go to bed early, the 
evening meal should be the lightest of the day. 
The following menus will show well-balanced food 
for children from five to nine years old. 

BREAKFAST 

Cereal cooked over night with dates, one third cup; top 
milk, one half cup; dry toast, two small slices; butter, one 
half-inch cube; milk, one glass; cocoa, one cup. 



Service First 195 

NOON DINNER 

(When possible) 

Lamb broth, with vegetables, one cup; bread, one slice; 
butter, one half-inch cube ; apple tapioca pudding, one half cup. 

SUPPER 

Scrambled eggs in one third cup of milk; dry toast, two 
slices; butter, one half-inch cube; apple sauce, one table- 
spoonful; or prunes, three; cookies (home baked), two; milk, 
one glass. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR BREAKFAST 

Cereal with dates, figs or seeded raisins, and top milk; 
creamed codfish, sauce made with milk and egg yolk; minced 
lamb on toast; eggs poached or scrambled in milk; creamed 
potatoes; corn meal muffins; bread and butter; cream toast; 
baked apple; steamed prunes. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR DINNER 

Chicken broth with rice or barley; broiled lamb chops; 
puree of peas or beans ; spinach ; lettuce (use lemons, no vine- 
gar) ; cornstarch puddings ; gelatine puddings ; fruit sauce 
with sponge cake; baked tapioca and rice puddings. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUPPER 

Cream soups; bread or unpolished rice and milk; toasted 
crackers or rolls ; stewed fruit ; milk or cocoa. 

BASIS FOR ALL CREAM SOUPS 

(For children or adults) 

I tablespoonful butter or fat Season with bay leaf, onion, 

I tablespoonful flour parsley, celery or celery seed, 

I cup milk, skim milk, cream, or salt and pepper 
white stock 



196 Practical Food Economy 

Utensils, Double boiler, tablespoon, measuring 
cup and spoon, puree sieve. 

Directions. Heat milk or other liquid in double 
boiler, with seasonings. Rub butter and flour to- 
gether, add a little hot milk to make smooth, then 
stir into the hot milk in boiler until cooked and 
smooth. Add salt and pepper. To this sauce from 
one half to one cup of puree ^ of any of the following 
vegetables may be added which will make a per- 
fect cream soup : 

Variety of Cream Soups 

Cream of asparagus soup Cream of pea soup 
Cream of potato soup Cream of rice soup 

Cream of tomato soup Cream of chestnut soup 

Cream of peanut soup Cream of mushroom soup 

Cream of walnut or almond soup 

School Lunches for Children 

With the opening of our schools in the fall, it 
seems quite important that the midday meal for 
school children be given some special thought by 
parents. 

Teachers have long since recognized the im- 
portance of nourishing food for children in relation 
to their studies in school, and penny lunches for the 
poorer children have been established in our cities; 

1 Puree means any vegetable boiled or steamed and rubbed through a 
sieve or colander. 



Service First 197 

in fact, this year new serve-self lunches will be added 
to many high schools, and this coming year the food 
which children in the Philadelphia schools eat will 
be under the direct supervision of the Board of 
Education. 

Parents, strangely enough, have not seen the 
danger in malnutrition until the whole country has 
been aroused by educators on this most important 
subject. At a moderate estimate there are two 
million children between four and fourteen years 
of age, of which nearly twelve per cent, attend our 
schools in an underfed condition, and these are not 
all children of the poor. 

With experience in both public and private schools, 
and from kindergarten to high school, our observation 
has been that rich and poor children suffer alike from 
lack of real nutritive foods, — not expensive fancy 
foods, but simple plain foods, which build flesh, bone, 
teeth, skin, hair, and nails, also producing strength 
and activity and a healthy inquiring mind. To ac- 
complish this end, mothers should know just what 
their children should have for breakfast, also what 
food Is necessary to replenish the used-up energy in 
study, play, and growth during the day. 

The child who is allowed to eat a luncheon which 
takes all the efforts of the digestive organs, when he 
should be studying, is surely not a well-nourished 
child. It makes no difference whether the child 
is in kindergarten or high school, concentration 
usually follows the lunch period, and the amount 



198 Practical Food Economy 

of brain work accomplished is largely dependent 
upon the ease with which his lunch is digested. 

Every boy and girl has at some time or other a 
desire for sweet and sour food, and both of these 
cravings may be perfectly satisfied without harm, 
if a few minutes' time is given each day by a re- 
sponsible, intelligent person to the selection of food 
for lunch box. 

As a kindergartner for eight years and supervisor 
of kindergartens part of that time, the lunches for 
the children was one of my most serious problems. 
Why ? In the first place too much' was put into 
the boxes ; and second, apparently no thought was 
given to combinations or food-building material. 
The lunch hour for these little folks comes usually 
about ten o'clock, and they need only a little to 
tide them over until their regular luncheon hour — 
an apple, banana, peeled orange, separated in sec- 
tions and wrapped in oiled paper; a dainty sweet 
sandwich and a tart apple, combining the sweet and 
sour, or a tart sandwich and a bit of sweet chocolate. 
French children are given a roll and a piece of choc- 
olate at eleven and four when they return home from 
school. All fruit should be quartered and cored ; 
and sandwiches (cookies and gingerbread may be 
substituted once in a while) wrapped in oiled paper. 

Another difficulty which kindergartners frequently 
meet is the desire of the children to trade lunches. 
This should not be permitted unless the teacher does 
the trading, and then only when she understands 



Service First 199 

exactly what each individual child should have 
better than the one who prepares the lunch. So 
much for the younger ones. 

The older pupils cannot go home, but must have 
their luncheon at school, five days a week. There 
should be a list of many varieties of sandwiches 
prepared, and a study made by the mother of the 
best food values in each kind. Whole wheat bread 
and butter with a generous helping of good brown 
sugar makes a sandwich the children like, and will 
add also the energy required. Sandwiches spread 
with jam and fine nut meats pressed into each sHce 
are very satisfying ; and if cut round or oblong and 
wrapped in paraffin paper, often taste much better 
to the child for the extra thought in their prepara- 
tion. Nothing is better than cream or thick nu- 
tritious soups with vegetables and good whole wheat 
bread and butter. Water, good milk, cocoa, or 
chocolate are children's drink and are foods, not 
beverages. 

Green food is required the year round, and mothers 
should not forget it. Lettuce, parsley, onions, 
tomatoes, celery, cabbage, radishes, and cucumbers 
all furnish in large quantities the necessary salts 
for the human body. The lack of these and whole 
wheat bread is more often the cause of poor teeth 
than too much candy. But these should be chosen 
with great care to have them ripe and at a reasonable 
market price so they may be used occasionally and 
not be expensive. Lunches should be changed with 



200 Practical Food Economy 

the seasons. As cool weather comes on, more sugar 
and fat are demanded, because additional heat must 
be generated for warmth. When the fresh fruits are 
not in season, use dried fruits such as figs, dates, and 
raisins, served plain or baked in bread or cake or for 
sandwiches. 

To sum up : We must have variety in the daily 
luncheon, and select foods best suited to keep the 
child's "human engine" in good running order, if 
health and the highest mental development are to be 
attained. 

Honey in Menu Making 

** Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth to refuse 
the evil, and choose the good." — Isaiah, VII 115. 

**And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna; 
— and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." 

— Exodus, XVI : 31. 

Honey is the nectar of flowers modified and evap- 
orated by the bees. It may be found in the grocery 
stores as comb honey or extracted honey, and the 
best of it is, it is easy to get and nearly every one 
likes it. 

Most of the honey on the market is pure and ranges 
in color from almost white to the color of the darkest 
molasses. The flavor and color vary according to 
the flower from which it is obtained, the lighter 
colored honeys being milder in flavor as a rule. 

Those with which we are most familiar are buck- 
wheat, white clover, sweet clover, alfalfa, raspberry. 



Service First 201 

etc., which are quite mild, each having, however, its 
own distinct flavor. Those coming from wild flowers, 
such as goldenrod and aster, or from buckwheat, etc., 
are darker and stronger in flavor, and since the pas- 
sage of the pure food law it is quite safe to assume that 
honey is genuine if so stated on the label. 

If there are any who cannot eat it, we would sug- 
gest a hght colored honey, mild in flavor, or the use 
of milk with the honey. Many times a disHke has 
been taken to honey because it has been eaten in too 
large quantities at a time. It is so valuable a sweet, 
and our systems demand food of this kind to such 
an extent, that we would be greatly benefited if honey 
were substituted for sugar and cheap molasses in 
much of our everyday cooking. 

Nearly eighty pounds of sugar on an average are 
annually consumed by every man, woman, and child 
in the United States, and if this quantity of sweet is 
necessary as an energizer in our bodies, it is most 
essential that it be pure and have a pleasing flavor. 
In pure honey we have every opportunity to suit 
the most fastidious taste in delicate flavors. 

In these days of scientific study of foods, no one is 
satisfied with merely the suggestion from some one 
that honey is "good for you to eat." We wish to 
know why and to secure some knowledge of it 
chemically. 

It is a concentrated solution of invert sugar, 
dextrose, and levulose in equal proportions, with 
traces of dextrin and other substances, most of which 



202 Practical Food Economy 

correspond to those elements present in the human 
body. This makes a most desirable sweet, which 
furnishes energy to the system rather than fat 
and bone ; it ranks second only to dates, and is far 
ahead of steak, fish, potatoes, or white bread in this 
respect. 

At one time in the history of our country honey was 
the principal sweet, and is so recognized in many of 
the older countries to-day. Now we are bringing it 
back to our tables in a more attractive form than ever, 
with several additional flavors. 

We all know how children long for candy. This is 
a natural longing and should be satisfied with the 
best sweets at our command at the proper time — 
not when the stomach is empty, but when there is 
food in it ; then there is never danger of overeating. 
Spread a piece of whole wheat bread with butter and 
a light covering of honey, and with a glass of milk, 
child or adult will have a wholesome, satisfying 
luncheon. 

It was formerly believed that cakes baked with 
honey absorbed moisture from the air, but Miss 
Caroline Hunt and Miss Helen Atwater, working in 
the nutrition laboratory of the Department of 
Agriculture, have made experiments which seem to 
show that the abiding softness of honey cake is due 
to other causes not yet explained. 

The fact that such cakes, though soft, never be- 
come soggy, even though exposed to moist air for a 
long time, seems to bear out their conclusions. Our 



Service First 203 

foreign neighbors have had this secret for years 
in making their delicious Christmas cakes, of which 
they will tell you "the longer you keep, the better 
they are." 

It may not be generally known, but our large 
biscuit companies purchase fifty to seventy carloads 
of the finest honey at a time for their baking. It is 
fine to use in baking apples, oatmeal, bread, ginger- 
bread, cakes, cookies ; on hot biscuits, waffles, pan- 
cakes, gems, popovers, toast, and in making pre- 
serves, canning fruits, etc. ; in fact, there is hardly 
any place in baking, putting up fruits, and making 
preserves where the flavor and quality are not im- 
proved by the use of honey. 

It is very valuable, combined with lemons, as a 
cough sirup. Take three medium size lemons, slice 
very thin in an earthen cooking utensil, and add 
three quarters of a cup of honey. Cook this over a 
slow fire for about fifteen minutes. Take a teaspoon- 
ful when cough is troublesome. Tar, herbs, and 
hoarhound are often added to this sirup, making it 
very effective and healing. 

The housekeeper should keep her honey in a dry, 
warm place, where her salt is kept. Even ioo° F. 
is none too warm. In substituting it for sugar in 
ordinary cooking recipes, much experimenting will 
have to be done, as almost an entirely new recipe 
must be used. The mere substitution of honey for 
sugar in most cases would result in a heavy cake; 
about one third less should be used, or part sugar and 



204 Practical Food Economy 

part honey. Most baking with honey should be done 
with a moderate oven. 

GINGER COOKIES 

I cup shortening i teaspoonful soda 

I cup sugar | teaspoonful baking powder 

f cup honey i^ teaspoonfuls ginger 

f cup sour milk ^ teaspoonful salt 

I egg 4I cups flour 

Utensils. Pastry board, mixing bowl, measuring 
cup, measuring spoon, flour sifter, tablespoon, rolling 
pin, cookie cutter, pans. 

Directions. Cream together the sugar, shortening, 
and honey, and add the egg well beaten. Sift the 
soda and baking powder several times together with 
two cups of flour, then add more flour to make as soft 
a dough as it is possible to handle. Roll, cut, put 
into floured shallow pans, and bake in a moderate 
oven. 

For variety, leave out the ginger and add caraway 
seeds, or chopped nuts and raisins. 

GRAHAM PUDDING 

J cup butter i| cups graham flour 

f cup honey | teaspoonful soda 

i cup milk I teaspoonful salt 

I egg I cup raisins (seeded) 

Utensils. Mixing bowl, measuring cup, measuring 
spoon, tablespoon, egg beater, flour sifter, mold or 
pan, steamer. 

Directions. Melt the butter ; add the honey, milk. 



Service First 205 

and egg well beaten, then the dry ingredients mixed 
and sifted, and raisins. Turn into buttered mold. 
Cover and steam two and one half hours. Serve 
with lemon sauce or any sauce made from left-over 
fruit juices. 

BAR-LE-DUC PRESERVES 

These preserves are believed to be the finest of their 
kind and have hitherto been imported at extravagant 
prices. Other fruits besides currants may be treated 
in this way, as honey is of itself a preservative. 
These preserves do not require to be kept absolutely 
air-tight. 

Take selected red or white currants of large size. 
One by one carefully make an incision in the skin J of 
an inch deep with tiny embroidery scissors. Through 
this slit remove the seeds with the aid of a sharp 
needle, preserving the shape of the fruit. Take the 
weight of the currants in honey and when this has 
been heated, add the currants. Let it simmer a 
minute or two, and then seal as for jelly. The cur- 
rants retain their shape, are of a beautiful color, and 
melt in the mouth. Care should be exercised not to 
scorch the honey. 

Food for Elderly People 

In recent "health talks". Doctor Stiles of Harvard 
University says, "It may be said that we should eat 
what we Hke ", but he adds, "That they are fortunate 
who Hke a great many kinds of foods." Those who 



206 Practical Food Economy 

have followed this doctrine of eating will find that 
with the present shortage of some foods, they are the 
fortunate ones who can quickly turn to another which 
is plentiful and equally nutritious. 

Here is where the great work for the mothers in 
feeding children has been practically an unsolved 
problem. How many times I am asked, "What 
shall I do with my child who will not touch milk.^" 
It was one of my own problems, so as women and 
mothers we have "reasoned together", and this has 
been our conclusion. 

If James or Mary does not drink milk, we need not 
discuss or urge it, but learn how to get it into soups, 
sauces, custards, breads, puddings, so they will have 
the milk value until they can and are ready to accept 
it occasionally in regular form. Elderly people are 
sometimes just as strong in their likes and dislikes, 
and they should be treated in the same manner as 
the children. They need some one to constantly 
supervise their food, and if they do not accept it 
in one way, instead of discussing it, give it to them 
in another form, when they no doubt will like it. 
"Liking" and "digesting" seem to go hand in hand 
with the very young and the old. 

They can be given nearly the same food with the 
exception of, perhaps, milk. Because of the large 
amount of calcium, or lime, in combination with the 
other constituents of milk (See Atwater Table, 
page 8), it is the food preeminently suited to the 
growing child or infant, supplying material for bone 



Service First 207 

and teeth. But when adult Hfe has been reached, 
and teeth and bone have been formed, milk is no 
longer a perfect food, its continued use causing cal- 
careous or lime deposit. Food which contains the en- 
tire grain of wheat is much better suited to maintain 
the life of aged or elderly persons, with a much smaller 
amount of milk, which may be used in connection 
with cream soups, and served hot with beverages. 

Whole wheat bread will sustain life for a very long 
period, while recent tests have proven that a person 
could live on white bread for about two months only, 
provided no other food was used. The elderly person 
needs food which will build up wasted tissue, and 
give energy, added strength, and vitaHty to the body. 
The best sugars are those found in the evaporated 
fruits, rather than in those containing the stronger 
acids. These are most excellent energy producers ; 
included with them for drink would be grape or 
pineapple juice. The best vegetables containing 
minerals are spinach, asparagus, lentils, and carrots. 
Carbon is by far the most abundant element entering 
into the composition of the body, and — when com- 
bined with hydrogen and oxygen — is certainly one of 
the most important food substances, because it 
furnishes the material for both heat and energy ; in 
other words, these elderly people must have fuel to 
keep their machinery going, such as brown or unpol- 
ished rice, oats, corn, rye, sweet potatoes, lentils, 
white beans and wheat, and some meat. 

Some proteins are necessary all our lives, but 



208 Practical Food Economy 

elderly people should be very careful about eating 
too much of the protein, as they have not sufficient 
energy, nor do they take the exercise necessary to 
dispose of a large amount of it. Proteins are found 
largely in meats, milk, and egg yolks. Only the amount 
that can be digested and thoroughly assimilated 
should be taken ; otherwise, it settles as a deposit in 
the body, putrifies, and eventually causes disease. 
In other words, it is most important that elderly 
people eat only what they can digest, that their 
systems shall not become clogged and stiffness and 
disease result. Meat should never be eaten oftener 
than once a day ; and better still, only two or three 
times a week ; yolks of eggs, cottage cheese, codfish, 
dried peas, beans, or lentils being used as a substitute 
for meat. The following are a few of the menus 
which I gave to four elderly women who were having 
noon dinner together, their ages varying from seventy 
to ninety years. No white bread was used in these 

menus. 

Vegetable Soup Wafers 

Lamb Stew with Carrots, Rice, or Potatoes 

Lettuce Salad with French Dressing 

Pineapple Tapioca 

Grape Juice 



Cream of Pea Soup Wafers 

Ham Breslau (left over chipped ham with 

bread crumbs, eggs, and milk baked in 

custard cups) with tomato sauce 

Potatoes Boiled with Skins on 

Sponge Cake Ice Cream 



Service First 209 

Kornlet Soup Wafers 

Hamburg Steak Brown Rice Cold Slaw 

Hot Gingerbread 

Grape Juice 



Tomato Bouillon Wafers 

Sliced Veal Loaf in a Brown Sauce 

Mashed Potatoes Buttered Carrots 

Baked Apples and Figs 

These menus are sufficient to give one an Idea of 
the kinds of food necessary and their combinations. 
Tea should never be served at the same time as meat. 
It is much better to take it as "afternoon tea" than 
with the dinner; use grape juice, or pure cool water 
in moderate quantities. There is no reason why, as 
we grow older, like the beautiful trees, we should not 
grow in strength and beauty, as well as symmetry, 
if we have the right building and sustaining food with 
plenty of air, exercise, sunshine, and a reasonable 
amount of work. 

The Trained Nurse in the Home 

** Small service is true service while it lasts. 
Of humblest friends, bright creature ! scorn not one. 
The daisy, by the shadow that it casts. 
Protects the lingering dewdrop from the sun." 

— Wordsworth. 

A nurse has much more responsibility than the 
ordinary duties in a sick room. It is one thing to 
have a nurse who looks carefully after the ventilation 



210 Practical Food Economy 

and cleanliness of the sick room, the care of the 
patient, and the proper methods of changing the 
linen, and thinks her work ends there; and it is 
another thing to have a nurse who can plan and 
cook the proper food for an invalid and serve it in 
the daintiest and most appetizing manner possible. 
Her training surely is not complete unless she is able 
to do both. 

If she does not understand the science of foods 
and professional housekeeping, it necessitates an 
extra person in the home to wait on her, when she 
should be able to go into the kitchen and prepare the 
three meals or more for the one who is ill without dis- 
turbing the working regime of the kitchen. If the 
cooking and serving of food are thoroughly under- 
stood by the nurse (and no other should have the 
title of "trained nurse"), and she knows exactly the 
right food and how to prepare it quietly, with little 
or no disturbance in the kitchen, she is usually wel- 
come — otherwise, not. She should wash and put 
away in the proper place every dish she uses — that 
again should be part of her training. 

Lack of knowledge in the preparation of food for 
the sick is the greatest deficiency among nurses. 
In every case to which they are called, they should 
know the proper foods, how to cook and serve them, 
the right quantity and how often, and require little 
or no waiting on. A very serious mistake is to serve 
too great a variety of food at one time, or in too large 
portions. I have seen one such dish spoil the pa- 



Service First 211 

tient's appetite for everything on the tray or table. 
There is no excuse for this, as nurses graduated from 
any reputable hospital have had training by a dieti- 
tian who gives clear, definite instruction in all this 
service for the patient. 

Illness in any home, whether rich or poor, is an 
extra expense, and nurses should have fully mastered 
the art of economy. There is no excuse for willful 
waste, which is frequently seen at this time, when 
the average family finds necessary expenses about all 
it can meet. 

There are different stages of illness which call for 
different feeding. For instance, at times only a 
liquid diet can be given the patient. The glass 
should never be brought to the room in the hand, but 
on a small tray or plate with a paper doily under 
the glass, and a napkin to fold under the patient's 
chin to prevent any drops from soiling the sheet. 

A convalescent patient may be given broths, 
strained vegetable soups, eggs, milk toast, custards, 
jellies, baked potatoes, chops, chicken, etc. Nurses 
should know how to prepare these scientifically, 
and should know special diets for patients suffering 
from various diseases. Set rules are not the thing to 
follow, unless the nurse is able to recognize symptoms 
which should mean a change in food. 

Food, after all, with other right living and thinking, 
is the real thing that cures. Medicine alone never 
cures, and I believe our best physicians will agree 
with me in this. It is used for emergency only, and 



212 Practical Food Economy 

good care and good food are the essentials. Too 
much stress cannot be laid on the selection, prepara- 
tion, and cooking of this food, which should be and is 
a special course, and no "slip-shod" cooking should 
ever be permitted by a nurse. The service should be 
spotless ; nothing should ever be spilled ; hot things 
should be hot — not cold — and cold things should 
be cold — not lukewarm ; then the patient will enjoy 
his meal if it is properly and invitingly arranged, and 
he is comfortably propped up. 

Summing everything up, a trained nurse should 
know the chemical composition of the body ; foods, 
their necessary cooking, and why necessary, the rela- 
tion of foods to the body, the correct proportions of 
well-balanced dietaries, the effect of starches, diges- 
tion, and fermentation. With this knowledge, work 
would be easier, service simpler and better, and all 
illness might be shortened and expense lightened. 

A Week-end Vacation for Mother 

"I must keep the body in good condition to do the bidding 
of the spirit." 

— Ellen H. Richards. 

If there is a daughter in the home, I wonder if she 
wouldn't like to give mother a week-end rest.? It 
is not always possible for mother to pack her bag like 
father or the older children, and go away somewhere, 
whenever she needs a change and rest, but if some 
one will take Saturday's and Sunday's work and let 



Service First 213 

her do just as she pleases at home, it will surprise 
her and all the rest of the family to find the amount 
of real recreation she will get from such relaxation. 

I will admit that mothers are not always easy to 
manage on this "rest" question. If they would only 
take more of it, and oftener, work wouldn't be work, 
because doing things when one is rested is pleasure. 
Every one who is normal naturally likes to be busy, 
but there comes a time — as with mother at the head 
of the home — when she is tired and worn out. Then 
it is time for members of the family to see it and step 
in and take her place. She will go until the last 
minute and never say a word, so don't wait for her to 
break down. 

Just say, "Mother, you are to be our guest Satur- 
day and Sunday and do just as you please. I am 
going to do the best I can to take your place. If you 
have any special requests, write them down, and I'll 
do my utmost to follow them." 

Don't be discouraged if mother "balks" a little 
or insists that you, her daughter, cannot plan and 
prepare all the necessary meals, but be steadily and 
kindly persistent, and assure her that you are going 
to have a good time and that it is only fair for you 
to relieve her of the work and let her and father have 
a chance to do some of the things they would like to 
do together. 

Mothers continually make the mistake of doing 
everything in the home. Home is a little community 
of its own and, as such, should have community life. 



214 Practical Food Economy 

This is only done where all the members of the 
family — father, mother, son, and daughter — 
work together, each actually doing something in the 
house every day. This is real community life and 
makes the happy contented home. 

Plan Saturday's and Sunday's meals on Friday 
and write out the entire grocery order for these two 
days. Do the marketing Friday and leave the order 
for fresh green vegetables to be delivered on Saturday. 

By placing your order in advance, the chances 
are you will get better selection and better service. 
Then, too, there is no time and effort wasted on 
Saturday in waiting for the grocery order. 

SUNDAY BREAKFAST 

Corn Flakes Berries and Cream 

Soft Boiled Eggs Rolls 

CofFee 

LUNCHEON 

Egg Sandwiches Cottage Cheese 

Raspberry Jam Boston Cookies 

Iced Tea with Mint 

The cookies are very easily made Saturday morn- 
ing, also the eggs may be boiled for the sandwiches 
and chopped ready to mix with the salad dressing. 
The sandwiches should be made right after breakfast 
Sunday, so if there are any members of the family 
who wish to spend the day in the woods, they can 
take their share with them. 



Service First 215 

EGG SANDWICHES 

Chop fine the whites of four hard-boiled eggs. 
Press the yolks through a sieve and add to the whites. 
Moisten to the desired consistency with salad dress- 
ing, season, and spread between thin slices of bread 
with shredded lettuce. Cut into any shape desired. 

COTTAGE CHEESE 

Heat thick sour milk slowly over hot water until 
curds separate ; strain through a fine sieve or cloth, 
drain for several hours, and season — or this is easily 
purchased. 

BOSTON COOKIES 

I cup butter or vegetable fat | cup currants 

I I cups sugar | cup seeded raisins 
3i cups flour 3 eggs 

I cup chopped nuts i teaspoonful soda 

I teaspoonful cinnamon 

Directions. Cream butter or vegetable fat and 
sugar together and add eggs well beaten. Mix soda 
and a little salt and cinnamon with flour and sift in 
half ; then add nuts and fruit and then the remain- 
ing flour. Mix well and drop by teaspoonfuls, one 
inch apart, on a greased pan. Bake in moderate oven. 

SUPPER 

Steak a la Quin 

Browned Potatoes with the Meat 

Quartered Tomatoes on Lettuce 

Rolls Jelly 

Blueberries with Cream Boston Cookies 

Coffee 



216 Practical Food Economy 

The steak is prepared after breakfast and put into 
the pan or fireless cooker. If it is baked in the oven, 
it need not go in until after luncheon, for it will require 
no watching with a very slow fire. Use a fireless 
cooker, however, if possible. The potatoes should 
be peeled, put in cold water, and cooked with the 
meat. We have planned the easiest possible meals 
for the daughter, which — if she has had a little 
experience with mother — will not be difficult to 
prepare. 

ROUND STEAK A LA QUIN 

Cover a slice of round steak (cut about one and a 
half inches thick) with flour ; and using the edge of 
a plate, or meat pounder, pound as much as possible 
into the meat. Melt two tablespoons of fat in a 
baking pan ; brown the meat quickly on both sides 
in this ; sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover 
with two cups of water or tomatoes, adding one or 
two sliced onions. Cover closely and bake in a slow 
oven for two hours, or until the meat is tender 
throughout. This is an excellent recipe for use in the 
fireless cooker. Serve with tomato sauce or alone 
with the gravy. This may also be cooked very 
slowly on top of the stove. 

Salads and Salad Dressings 

Did you ever stop to think "Why bread and 
butter ? " Bread — no one can remember when bread 
was not called the "staff of life" — but why butter 



Service First 217 

it ? Perhaps because you always have buttered it, 
or maybe because your parents, grandparents, and 
great-grandparents always buttered theirs. It might 
have been instinct which taught us that we require 
a balanced ration. Our bodies not only need the 
renewal of muscle and tissue, but also the mainte- 
nance of heat and energy. The bread supplies the 
tissue, and the butter or oil supplies much heat and 
energy; and if it is a good, pure oil, it does much 
toward building nerve tissue. That is why we ought 
to butter our bread, and why we ought to use pure 
olive oil with our salads and likewise in many other 
culinary combinations. 

The "taste" or liking for olives or olive oil should 
come instinctively to the normally healthy person, 
and it is characteristic of the healthiest races. If 
you are strong, well nourished, and active, olive oil 
helps to keep you so ; if run down, with wasted tis- 
sues, disordered stomach, and intestinal indigestion, 
take olive oil — a tablespoonful three times a day. 
Do not let morbid tastes bind you down any longer 
and lead you to say, "I can't eat olive oil." Re- 
member it is not an animal fat, but is really the juice 
of a vegetable, which in the olive takes the form of 
oil. Make your salads and greens an excuse for 
consuming olive oil, for that way lies health. Be 
careful to buy the best and purest oil possible, then 
the taste will be more easily acquired. 

A good way to test for fine flavor is to put a few 
drops in the palms of the hands and then rub briskly 



218 Practical Food Economy 

together, after which open the hands a little and in- 
hale. If good oil, there should be a fragrance and 
bouquet that is as pleasing as the fragrance of flowers ; 
if there is a musty, dull smell, it will be equally notice- 
able. 

Take this as your slogan: "It is better to stay 
healthy than to waste time and money getting 
healthy." This is the age of hygiene, not medicine. 
Medicines are for emergencies ; pure foods, rightly 
prepared, are for every day. The Eskimos are the 
only people said to be free from tuberculosis. It is 
the belief of some writers that this is due to the cold, 
stimulating atmosphere in which they live, but this 
cannot be true, as statistics have proved that people 
living in similar cHmates are very much affected by 
this disease, so the solution is found in the Eskimo's 
diet. He eats fat and plenty of it, and seems to be 
free not only from tuberculosis, but appendicitis and 
other diseases of the intestines. 

When most of us reach maturity, we have too 
decided ideas about what we happen to like or dis- 
like. We stubbornly refuse to acquire tastes for 
foods we have every reason to know are good for us ; 
we stick to too narrow a diet. Only recently I 
overheard some one say, "We have too great a va- 
riety in our meals." With the many parts or ele- 
ments of our body constantly crying out to be fed, 
we surely need a varied diet — omnivorous, without 
gluttony — "A little of each, too much of none." 

There is no one branch of preparation of food which 



Service First 219 

is given the thought to-day that salads receive. If 
we announce a lecture on *' Salads and Salad Dress- 
ings ", we are sure every seat will be taken. Why is 
this ? It is because all women like salads to eat, 
and they are rapidly educating the family to eat more 
of the greens and oils in salads. There is more 
variety in combinations of meats, fruits, and vege- 
tables with seasonings than in any other dish. Wo- 
men like variety, and they find it in the making of 
salads. Most of them are fond of attractive color 
combinations, and there is no end to this art in salads. 
Best of all, when well made and combined, they are 
wholesome and appeal to the taste, stimulating to 
the appetite and easily digested, so it is easy to see 
why every woman, young or old, wants to know more 
and more about salads. 

Some one has said : "Eat onions in May, no doc- 
tors you'll pay." To this quotation might be added, 
"Eat salads in May." If the fresh, seasonable 
greens are used, there is no question but the body 
will soon be relieved of the excess of food, and 
strength and vivacity be noticed. 

A French philosopher has made a study of the 
effects of good living upon the fair sex, and says : 
"Succulent (salads), delicate and carefully prepared 
food, has been proved by a series of minute studies 
to delay the exterior signs of age. It gives bril- 
liance to the eyes, freshness to the skin, strength 
to the muscles, and as it is acknowledged that the 
depression of the muscles causes wrinkles, it can 



220 Practical Food Economy 

safely be said that all women who know what to 
eat are comparatively ten years younger than those 
who ignore this science." 

It has taken us many years to recognize this doc- 
trine, but it is now being put into practice by all 
thinking women. 

When the first warm days of spring or summer come, 
our appetites and taste naturally turn away from 
meats to the crisp, green salads. It has not been 
many years since part of the family, at least, had 
to be coaxed to eat salads ; but I doubt whether this 
happens very often when salads have become at all 
known and their food value appreciated, even among 
the men in the family. 

I so frequently hear women, both young and old, 
say: "I want to be a good salad maker." There 
is no reason why any one may not be a good salad 
maker if she has a good eye for form and color, 
a keen sense of taste, and exercises artistic ability in the 
selection of combinations of materials. Greens must 
always be fresh, crisp, and dry. Wash, dry, wrap 
in a deep cloth bag on ice, or put into a pail in a cold 
place until ready to use. This is the very foundation 
for a tasty and artistic salad, and must not be over- 
looked. 

If there is anything that will ruin the appetite, it 
is to sit down to the table with wilted lettuce, sliced 
cucumbers which have been soaked in salted water 
with every bit of the crispness removed from them, 
and both deluged in oil and vinegar. This is some- 



Service First 221 

times called a salad ; but I should never honor it 
with such a title. 

The lettuce should be dry and crisp when laid on 
the plates. Cucumbers, if used (and I speak of 
these particularly, as they are so abused in the prep- 
aration), should be peeled and laid in ice water for an 
hour or more so they will become hard and crisp, not 
soft and flabby, with the juices drawn out. Then 
they should be laid on the lettuce, fresh and digest- 
ible, with a very little French dressing carefully 
made — just enough to moisten lettuce and cucum- 
bers, and not running on the plate. 

Dressings 

There are a few things very essential to good 
dressing — good, perfectly flavored oil, and a fruit 
or tarragon vinegar, or lemon, grape fruit, sour 
orange or pineapple, and lemon juice. Any of these 
combine well as an acid with the oil for fruit salads. 
If made with a French dressing, they should be stirred 
up with a piece of ice and used at once. If a mayon- 
naise, then in the proportion of half or one third 
whipped cream should be used with the mayonnaise. 

FRENCH DRESSING 

6 tablespoonfuls olive oil i teaspoonful salt 

2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice or vinegar J teaspoonful paprika 

Utensils. Shallow bowl, silver fork, tablespoon. 
Directions. Rub the bowl, which is very cold, 



222 Practical Food Economy 

with a clove or garlic. Add a small piece of ice, the 
salt, paprika, and the oil gradually, stirring rapidly 
with a silver fork. When this is smooth, add the 
lemon juice, fruit or tarragon vinegar in the same 
manner, when the dressing should be thick as cream. 

A quantity of the above ingredients may be put 
into a fruit jar and when ready to use shake until 
thick and creamy. 

Vary this dressing with grated onion, or onion salt, 
celery seed, horse-radish, catsup, chopped parsley, 
peppers, chili sauce, chopped chives, or any desired 
flavorings. 

Remember a poor oil will spoil the most carefully 
made dressing, and this is frequently the reason why 
many dislike salad dressings made with oil. Pur- 
chase only the best olive oil, and refuse to accept 
any other. 

MAYONNAISE DRESSING 

2 yolks eggs 3 teaspoonfuls lemon juice or tarragon vinegar 

I pint olive oil | teaspoonful salt 

I teaspoonful paprika 

Utensils. Mayonnaise mixer, measuring cup, 
glass lemon squeezer, tablespoon, measuring spoon. 

Directions. Put the mayonnaise mixer on ice 
and have oil and acids cold. Separate the yolks of 
the eggs very carefully and put them into the bowl 
of the mixer. Turn the dasher until the yolk is 
lightly beaten. Then from the dropper add the oil, 
a drop at a time, stirring steadily, until one dropper- 



Service First 223 

ful has been used ; then a Httle more at a time may 
be added until half of the oil has been beaten into the 
eggs. Now begin to alternate with the lemon juice 
and oil until all are well blended to suit the taste. 
Put in seasonings, pour into a pint jar, set on cover, 
and place in refrigerator, where it will keep for 
several weeks. 

When ready to use, it may be thinned with whipped 
cream or the white of an egg, well beaten. Tarragon 
vinegar may be used Instead of the lemon juice if pre- 
ferred, or some of the fruit juices combined with the 
lemon give a delicious flavor. Mustard is used as 
seasoning in dressing for meat, fish, and cabbage 
salads. Add various seasonings to suit special 
salads, as this is one of the great arts in salad making. 
Good dressings may be made from inexpensive 
vegetable oils, but they do not have the fine flavoring 
which is found in olive oil, though they are a perfectly 
good fat. 

Fruit Salads and Dressings 

Fruit salads serve a different purpose in the food 
dietary from either meat or vegetables, as they have 
the natural sugars which satisfy that ever-present 
desire for sweets, and help supply the energy of 
which we are al?\rays in need. 

Remember these combinations when mixing fruits : 
Apples, celery, pineapple, grapefruit and Tokay or 
Malaga grapes ; oranges and bananas ; pineapple 
and grapefruit ; peaches and oranges ; apricots, 



224 Practical Food Economy 

dates, and figs ; apples and dates ; cherries and 
pineapple; alligator pears and grapefruit; pome- 
granate and grapefruit ; with Romaine, leaf, or head 
lettuce or on leaf. 

With these may be combined English walnuts, 
hazelnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, or peanuts, the amount 
and kind dependent upon the food value desired in 
the salad. To be clear upon this, I mean only a 
very few nuts, if used at the close of a hearty meal ; 
if a luncheon dish, one tablespoonful of chopped nuts 
may be used for each person. 

Dressing for Fruit Salads 

Prepare the fruits, whether canned or fresh, very 
carefully for salads, draining all juice from them. 
(Where skins are tough, as in some of the grapes, be 
sure to peel.) Save the juices and use in making 
the mayonnaise dressing. Vinegar should never be 
used for fruit salads. If it is desired very tart, use 
lemon or lime juice ; if mild, use orange and lemon, 
pineapple, grapefruit, grape juice, sherry wine, 
claret, madeira, or any of the fine flavored fruits or 
wines. This gives a delicate flavor and combines 
much better with fruits than vinegar. 

Whipped cream is always combined with this dress- 
ing, usually half and half, and added at the last 
moment when mixing. These salads are frequently 
served with hot cheese wafers in place of the regular 
dessert. 



Service First 225 

When a simpler dressing is required for dinner use 
especially, there is nothing which excels French 
dressing, and there is no greater art in all salad mak- 
ing than in making this dressing well. Be miserly 
with acids, a spendthrift with good, pure, finely 
flavored olive oil, very diligent and lively in the 
stirring, and have all ingredients icy cold, including 
a small piece of ice in the dish. Season according 
to ingredients used in the salad. 

APPLE AND DATE SALAD 

4 apples 2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice 

i pound dates (stoned) Fruit dressing 

Directions. Pare and core the apples, cutting them 
into strips. There should be two and one half cups. 
Pour the lemon juice well over the apples ; this keeps 
them from turning dark. Pour boiling water over 
the dates, wash and separate well, and wipe dry. 
Stone and cut each date into strips, mix apples and 
dates together, and set aside for an hour carefully 
covered. 

Make a fruit mayonnaise dressing, using lemon 
juice instead of vinegar. For one third cup of dress- 
ing use one tablespoonful of currant jelly, well mixed 
into it, and an equal amount of whipped cream. 
Mix with the fruit and dates on head lettuce or leaf 
lettuce, shredded fine. Garnish with a few pistachio 
nuts and one or two whole dates, stuffed with nuts and 
dressing. 



226 Practical Food Economy 

CHRISTMAS SALAD 

Cut three grapefruit in half, crosswise. Remove 
the pulp and drain. Cut in two-inch strips French 
endive in the proportion of one cup grapefruit to 
one and one half cups endive. Toss all together 
with French dressing made with orange and grape- 
fruit juice and an extra seasoning of paprika. 

Refill the grapefruit shells, put a teaspoonful of 
pomegranate and a few chopped pistachio nuts over 
the top, and set in a bed of holly on lace paper doilies, 
and you will have a salad in keeping with the color 
scheme for the hoKday season. 

PEAR SALAD 

There is a delicious, long, russet pear which is fine 
for this salad, or canned ones may be used, drained, 
and well marinated with lemon and orange juice. 
Peel and cut down in half, carefully scooping out 
the seeds, making a deep depression. Fill this 
with ripe Camembert or any cream cheese and lay 
on white leaves of head lettuce on salad plates. 
Serve with French dressing highly seasoned with 
paprika. 

Epicures disagree as to the proper dressing for 
alligator pears. They are rich in fats and are 
called "butter fruit" in the tropics, where they are 
eaten with lime juice squeezed over them. A little 
oil and a great deal of lemon or lime juice is liked 
by most lovers of this fruit. 



Service First 227 

FRUIT SALAD 

1 grape fruit | cup white grapes 

2 slices pineapple ^ cup pecan meats 
I orange i head lettuce 

Directions. Cut the grapefruit and oranges in 
cross sections and free from seeds or membrane ; 
drain ; skin and seed the grapes and cut the nuts 
and pineapple in pieces ; mix and arrange on lettuce 
leaves, and serve with a mayonnaise dressing which 
is half whipped cream, juice of half a lemon, and two 
tablespoonfuls of raspberry juice, jam, or jelly mixed 
well with it. Pass toasted split French biscuits or 
rolls with this salad. 

OLIVIA SALAD 

^ pint ripe olives (pitted) i teaspoonful lemon juice 

3 ripe tomatoes i teaspoonful grated onion 

^ cup whipped cream Paprika 

I cup mayonnaise Lettuce 

Utensils. Mayonnaise mixer, vegetable knife, 
chopping knife and bowl, cream whip. 

Directions. Pit and chop the olives rather fine and 
season with the lemon juice, paprika, the mayon- 
naise, and whipped cream mixed (but not beaten) 
together. Arrange four portions of washed and dried 
lettuce on salad plates ; peel and put one slice of 
tomato on top and spread thick with olive mixture ; 
put another slice of tomato on this ; garnish with 
mayonnaise, ripe olives and chopped chives, grated 
onion or chopped parsley. Pass cheese croutons 
or souffle and wafers with this salad. 



228 Practical Food Economy 

Informal Sunday Evening Suppers 

"Grace thou thy house and let not that grace thee." 

— Benjamin Franklin. 

In many homes the Sunday evening meal is made 
pleasantly informal both by the simplicity of the food 
and the manner of serving it. 

If partially prepared before, it is a simple matter 
to set the table as for luncheon, with centerpiece and 
doilies. If one hot dish is to be served, the chafing 
dish is often used, for many times the host is an 
expert in chafing-dish cookery. Or, if there are 
children (either sons or daughters) old enough to 
take charge of a meal, let them assume the entire re- 
sponsibility of the Sunday night supper, taking turns 
if they choose, and inviting mother to a meal once a 
week. I am sure no one will appreciate it more. 

In a cooking class we once had among others a 
brother and sister, nine and twelve years old re- 
spectively, who loved to cook and begged to do some 
of the cooking at home. But the cook said, "None 
of their fussing in my kitchen." The father, how- 
ever, said, "No cook or maid shall enter our kitchen 
Sunday morning — my two children may plan and 
cook our Sunday morning breakfast." We had many 
happy reports from them, as we always helped plan 
the breakfast and used such dishes as came within 
their experience in the cooking class. 

No meal during the week can so characterize the 
intimate family life or hospitality to friends as this 



Service First 229 

Sunday evening meal. "Fireside suppers" are a 
pleasure if families are still in the country during the 
cool weather. A tea wagon or English tea stand, 
holding sandwiches, cakes, bonbons, plates, etc., is 
easily moved to the fireplace, and there is no end to 
the good cheer in eating under such happy conditions. 

Who would care for Sunday or Monday, or any 
day for that matter, unless unexpected company 
"dropped in" occasionally .f* The only discomfort 
which the hostess should ever feel is when she has not 
enough in her larder to serve these extra guests. 

If meals are planned in advance, make no changes 
for the unexpected guest. There is nothing which 
adds more to the discomfort than this "extra work" 
idea of hospitality. To make the guest comfortable 
and feel perfectly welcome, all that is necessary is 
to put on an extra plate and add a little more in 
quantity of food if ample time is given. If not, the 
emergency shelf should always contain reserve food, 
such as home canned fruit, canned soup, vegetables, 
noodlesj wafers of several kinds, canned salmon, 
lobster, tuna fish, crab meat, deviled ham and 
chicken, olives, pickles, cocoa, coffee, tea, and (in 
the refrigerator) grape, lime or pineapple juice, or 
ginger ale. With some or all of these things and 
plenty of good seasonings, a soup can be quickly 
made or an extra dish prepared which will help out. 

Being prepared for "drop-in" guests frequently 
gives greater pleasure to both hostess and guest 
than when company is formally invited. 



230 Practical Food Economy 

If the mistress of the home is to have freedom and 
pleasure, she must carefully plan at least three 
meals in advance every day, and particularly for 
Sunday, which is the one day of all the week for the 
family to be together. Remember that it is not 
alone the food served the guest which gives pleasure, 
but the welcome, which must be cordial and genuine. 

Menus for Sunday Night 

NUMBER 1 

Tongue Sandwiches 

Lettuce and Tomato Salad 

Olives Nuts Salted 

Peaches Sunshine Cake 

Chocolate or Coffee 

TONGUE SANDWICHES 

Chop cold tongue very fine and for every pint of 
this add one quarter cup of cream ; one quarter cup 
mayonnaise, both whipped very stiff; two table- 
spoonfuls melted butter, and dash of paprika. Beat 
the butter to a cream ; cut the bread very thin, and 
spread with the butter and then the tongue mixture. 
These should be moist and used at once. 

MENU NUMBER 2 

Chicken or Lamb with Peas in Mayonnaise 

Thin Bread and Butter Pickles 

Cream Cheese and Bar le Due Currant Salad 

Wafers Coffee 



Service First 231 

LAMB WITH PEAS 

Slice cold roast lamb and arrange nicely in the 
center of a platter. Open a can of peas and drain 
well, saving the liquid for soup. Mix with mayon- 
naise and turn on the platter around the lamb. 
Garnish with parsley and serve. 

CREAM CHEESE AND BAR LE DUC CURRANT 
SALAD 

I Philadelphia cream cheese Lettuce 

Bar le Due currants 

Directions, Prepare the lettuce and have per- 
fectly dry and cold. Arrange on individual salad 
plates. Season the cheese with salt and paprika 
and very little mayonnaise. Put into a potato ricer 
and press through on to each plate of lettuce. Dot 
the cheese all over with Bar le Due currants or other 
home preserves. Serve with plain wafers. 

MENU NUMBER 3 

Ham Mousse and Epicurean Sauce 

Lettuce and Mayonnaise Sandwiches 

or Chopped Pimentos, Sweet Green Peppers, or Olives 

Salted Almonds Stuffed Dates 

Allegretta Fruit Cakes Ice Cream 

CofFee 

HAM MOUSSE AND EPICUREAN SAUCE 

2 cups cold boiled ham (chopped) i tablespoonful granulated gelatin 
^ cup heavy cream i tablespoonful mixed mustard 

I cup hot water Paprika and cayenne 



232 Practical Food Economy 

Directions. Chop the ham very fine and pound 
in a mortar, when possible. Dissolve the gelatin in 
a little cold water, then in the hot water, and add 
to the prepared ham with the cream beaten stiff. 
Season with rnustard, paprika, and a few grains of 
cayenne. Mold and chill. Part ham and chicken 
or veal are well combined, especially where it is 
desired to use left-overs. 

EPICUREAN SAUCE 

1 cup heavy cream i tablespoonful tarragon vinegar 
3 tablespoonfuls mayonnaise i teaspoonful English mustard 

2 tablespoonfuls horse-radish | teaspoonful salt 

Caj^enne 

Directions. Beat the given amount of cream stiff 

and add the remaining ingredients. Turn the ham 

mousse out on a platter and serve the sauce around 

it. 

ALLEGRETTA FRUIT CAKES 

I cup pastry flour 4 tablespoonfuls butter 

I cup boiling water 4 eggs 

Directions. Put the water and butter into a 
saucepan over the fire, and when actively boiling 
add flour all at once, stirring rapidly all the time 
until the dough leaves the sides of the pan and forms 
a large ball. Cover and set to one side to cool. Now 
add one egg at a time, beating well each time. The 
dough should look fine, velvety, and glossy. Dip by 
teaspoonfuls on to greased baking pans and bake in a 



Service First 233 

moderately quick oven about forty-five minutes or 
until very light. Fill the space inside with sliced 
peaches, fruit, or any desired filling. A very small 
opening is required on the side of the puff for filling. 
Cover well with allegretta frosting. 

ALLEGRETTA FROSTING 

2 whites of eggs i teaspoonful vanilla 

i| cups powdered sugar i teaspoonful lemon juice 

3 squares unsweetened chocolate 

Directions. Break the whites of the eggs on to a 
cold platter, beat well, lifting the egg beater high 
to entangle air for lightness. When very frothy, 
commence adding the sugar, a very little at a time, 
and keep on doing so, beating hard until it will stand 
alone. Add the lemon juice, beat, and let stand until 
stiff and shiny, then add the vanilla. Spread this 
on each puff and let stand until dry. Heat the choc- 
olate in the bowl over the teakettle of hot water, or 
melt in a double boiler. 

When the icing is not soft on top of the puff, take 
your spatula and dip up plenty of the chocolate on 
the broad blade, and with a quick sweeping motion 
cover every bit of the icing with it. This will have 
to be repeated several times to cover all the icing. 

This is a delicious frosting or filling, and can easily 
be made with a little practice. Any good cake 
recipe is nice, baked in one sheet, iced, and spread 
with chocolate and decorated with nuts; cut in 
squares. 



234 Practical Food Economy 

The Road to Men's Hearts 

"The turnpike road to men's hearts I find lies through their 
mouths, or I mistake mankind." 

If the above which I recently saw in print be true, 
then the "kitchen" instead of the "parlor" would 
be the place for laying the plot of "The Spider and the 
Fly." Certainly a web could be woven around the 
modern cook stove which would entice and hold any 
man, if girls were only willing to apply themselves 
to the art of cooking. 

I do not say the above statement is true ; but this 
I do know, that if I went into every home in the land, 
I would find the majority of cooking planned for 
some man. It is what he likes, when he likes it, and 
how he likes it. 

Years ago, in the beginning of homes and home- 
making, the husband went forth to kill the game 
and brought it home where the wife was ready to 
cook and serve it. Later, the man tilled the soil that 
food might grow which was made by the good 
"housewife" into appetizing dishes for the family. 
She also had time to spin the yarn for the cloth from 
which she made their clothes. 

Civilization and machinery have taken care of 
much of this labor in the home ; from the making of 
candles and the care of lamps, we have come to 
turning on the button and behold ! electric light. 
Instead of rag rugs and carpets which were sewed 
and woven in the home, we have Oriental rugs and 



Service First 235 

machine-made floor coverings. All necessary work 
is made wonderfully easy through labor-saving 
devices for cleaning and cooking. But, while large 
bakeries do much for us, the essential part of cooking 
has not been taken from the home kitchen. If this 
cooking which is "the road to men's hearts" is looked 
upon as an art to be acquired, a science to be learned, 
what more important profession could a woman aspire 
to? 

In these days no one believes that a woman should 
wash and scrub and clean all day with no outside 
interests ; but she must use her brains and think of 
the best and quickest ways in her cooking. To this 
end our mothers and daughters are being trained by 
schools and lectures all over the country. 

The old saying, "The way to a man's heart is 
through his stomach," has been demonstrated many 
times. Mary Livermore's famous reply to a woman 
who wrote asking her what to do for her husband's 
bad temper was, " Feed the brute." In each instance, 
it was' a recognition of the fact that the physical side 
of a tired, overworked, and possibly cross man when 
properly fed rebounds, and he recuperates physically, 
mentally, and morally. 

For an entire year I directed all the lunches which 
a devoted wife cooked and carried to her husband's 
office. Every dinner was planned and cooked by 
her to lessen his desire for drink. This was done 
without his knowledge, and we both lived to see the 
day when that desire was a thing of the past — all 



236 Practical Food Economy 

because of a knowledge of foods, their combination 
and careful preparation. 

Any woman can win a man and draw him into the 
"web" if she so desires, but it is another thing to 
keep him there. Don't tempt him with all the good 
things to eat before marriage and then expect to 
hold him by careless, indifferent cooking. "Man 
cannot live by bread alone", but it is an essential 
asset in keeping out of the divorce court. 

A judge said to me two years ago, as he was looking 
at my "Card Index Cooking Recipes", "I beUeve 
if I could present one of these to the wife and tell 
her to go home and follow it, when young couples 
come to me for divorce, it would be the means of 
reuniting them in almost every instance." This 
comes from a man who daily deals with facts, not 
sentiments. 

You Can Easily Learn to Cook 

"It's come to a crisis in our flat," said a bride of 
six months. "It's a boarding house, a cook, or 
starvation. We can't afford a cook, and as self- 
preservation is the first law, there's but one' alterna- 
tive. I simply can't cook." 

"Why.^" inquired her hostess. 

"Because I never learned. We always had a 
cook at home, and I never thought of going to 
cooking school before I was married. My husband 
wants me to go to one now, but it would take so 



Service First 237 

long to learn how to make all the different things 
that people eat that I don't see where I'd ever get 
time for it. 

'^I feel sorry for John sometimes. His mother 
was a great housekeeper, and I could see yesterday 
that he was just about discouraged when the ocean 
was no brinier than the soup at lunch, and the bis- 
cuits were like little paving stones. Where was 
that boarding house Emily was telling us about 
yesterday, v/here the cooking v/as so good .^" 

"If I remembered, I wouldn't tell you," said her 
friend promptly. "It's a miserable, crippled sort 
of life that you and John are too good for, and you 
ought to be ashamed to talk about relinquishing the 
home that you married to found, just because you 
are too lazy to cook." 

"Mary Smith!" cried the accused indignantly. 
" I'm not lazy. Didn't I tell you I've tried and tried, 
and I can't cook ^ Cooking is a matter of education, 
or special talent, or something that I haven't got." 

The -foregoing was a conversation I heard recently. 
Who could have told this poor young housekeeper 
such nonsense ? Does she suppose that women are 
born cooks ^ Not much ! If she put as much 
brains into the preparation of lunch as into the selec- 
tion of a gown or the planning of one for the sewing 
girl to make, the lunch would be as artistic as the 
gown. 

The trouble is girls scatter their brains on the 
cooking, and excuse themselves by saying they were 



238 Practical Food Economy 

not born to it. Most women and girls concentrate 
on clothes, and that is why they can plan or make 
a dress better than they plan or cook a meal. 

An inexperienced cook may not get perfect results 
the first time, but this is not true for those who have 
intelhgence enough to read. She can get any 
number of accurate recipes, with measurements, 
utensils, and directions given ; she can set out these 
necessary utensils, measure out the quantities as 
given exactly (not "pretty near" but exactly) ; put 
them together as directed, and cook them according 
to instructions, not forgetting to concentrate on the 
cooking or baking until finished. Good food is 
bound to come from such centered effort. It's not 
having been born short on cooking nor long on cook- 
ing. If people are born short on anything, it is the 
determination not to try with the same interest, 
purpose, and concentration as when planning or 
making something pretty to wear. 

There is no intelligent woman on earth who can't 
cook if she wants to, and she ought to want to, if she 
voluntarily marries a man who cannot afford to hire 
a good cook, because every family is entitled to 
wholesome food, and as good cooks are expensive 
luxuries, the housekeeper must supply the deficien- 
cies of the incompetent one. 

Simple things, well cooked, are all that should be 
expected of the housekeeper who is mistress and maid 
in one, but I never heard of an appeal for divorce on 
the ground that planked steaks were wanting, while 



Service First 239 

cold canned vegetables and leaden biscuits have 
figured in many a one. 

Let me say to the bride: "Don't go to boarding. 
You started to make a home — a little nook of com- 
fort and brightness in the world. As yet the indi- 
vidual kitchen is a necessary part of it, whatever the 
future may hold in the way of cooperation. Start 
your little cooking class there to-morrow, using your 
clever head as well as your willing hands, and by and 
by — ■ when John is able to afford a cook — he will be 
as proud of the wife who knows how to cook, as you 
will be of his practical grasp of business details, 
which, by that time, he will have relegated to those 
under him. 

" Every woman should remember that a successful 
business man must know his work from the bottom 
up. Why shouldn't you ^ Home-making is not 
play, but it is far better ; it is worth-while work, and 
as such should be healthy and wholesome ; and that 
little class of one, faithfully and cheerfully persisted 
in, represents a very important part in home life. 

"Make a fresh start and your husband will soon 
have one of the best cooks ever 'made', as there are 
few like Topsy — *just born.'" 



INDEX 



Acids and Minerals, 50, 
Allegretta, Frosting, 233. 

Fruit Cakes, 232-233. 
Amber Marmalade, 153-154. 
Animal Food, Atwater's Nutrition 

Table of, 6-8. 
Apple, and Date Salad, 225. 

Butter, 187. 

Cobbler, 188. 

Custard Pie, 189. 

Custards, 188. 

en Casserole, 187. 

Fruit Cocktail, 185-186. 

Pie, 167. 

Sauce, 184-185. 
Apples, 183-184. 

Blushing, 186. 

Coddled, 188. 

Rosy-cheeked, 185. 
Apple-sauce Cake, 189. 
Approximate lOO-Calorie Portions 

of Common Foods, 11-13. 
Apricot Shortcake, 146-147. 
Atwater's Nutrition Tables, 6-1 1. 

Animal Food, 6-8. 

Vegetable Food, 8-1 1. 

Baked Ham Hash, 65. 
Baked Peaches, 172. 
Bar le Due Preserves, 205. 
Basis for Cream Soups, 195-196. 
Bavarian Rice, 111-112. 
Beef, a la Mode, 63. 
Braised, 56. 



Beef, Fore Quarter of, 57-59. 

Hind Quarter of, 60-62. 

Short Ribs of, 62. 
Berry Pie, 163-165. 
Biscuit, Buttermilk, 126. 
Blood Purifiers, 50. 
Blushing Apples, 186. 
Boston Cookies, 215. 
Braised Beef, 56. 
Bread, as a Food, 89-91. 

Brown, 102-103. 

Buttermilk, 125. 

History of, 86-89. 

Necessities for Good, 96-97. 

Nut, 103. 

Quick Buttermilk, 125-126. 

Sixth City Whole Wheat, 97-98. 

Southern Spoon Corn, 105-106. 

Standardizing a Loaf of, 94-96. 

Value of Whole Wheat, 91-94. 

Very Best, loo-ioi. 
Breakfast, Sunday, 214. 
Brown Betty, 186-187. 
Brown Bread, 102-103. 
Bulky Foods and Cleansers, 50. 
Butter, Apple, 187. 
Buttermilk, 123-125. 

Biscuit, 126. 

Bread (quick), 125. 

Nut Bread, 125. 
Buying Foods, 2. 



Cabbage, Pickled Purple, 159. 
Cake, Allegretta. 



241 



242 



Index 



Cake, Fruit, 232-233. 

Apple-sauce, 189. 
Calories, 4-5, II. 
Canned Food, Truths about, 127- 

132. 
Canning, Cold Pack 

Method of, 135-139. 

Home, 132-135. 

Time-table for Fruit and 
Vegetables, 137-139. 
Cantaloupe, How to Judge, 175- 

177. 
Carbohydrates, 49. 
Care of Milk, 11 5-1 17. 
Cheaper Meat Substitutes or Alter- 
natives, 68. 
Children, School 

Lunches for, 196-200. 

What to Feed, 190-200. 
Children's Menus, 194-195. 
Christmas Salad, 226. 
Cleansers, 50. 
Cobbler, Apple, 188. 
Cocktail, Apple Fruit, 185-186. 
Coddled Apples, 188. 
Cold Pack Method of Canning, 

135-139- 
Conserve, Grape, 181. 

Plum, 173-174- 
Cook, Learn to, 236-239. 
Cookies, Boston, 215. 

Ginger, 204. 
Cooking by Electricity, 40-43. 

Foods, 3. 

Macaroni, 114. 

Rice, 109-110. 
Corn Meal, 103-105. 

and Fig Pudding, 106. 

Muffins, 105. 

Mush, 106. 
Cottage Cheese, 215. 
Cream Cheese and Bar le Due 
Currant Salad, 231. 



Cream Sauce, 186. 

Cream Soups, Basis for, 195-196. 

Variety of, 196. 
Croquettes, 76. 
Crumpets, Whole Wheat, 126. 
Cucumbers, Salted, 157-158. 
Custards, Apple, 188. 
Cuts, Scientific Cooking of, 53-56. 

Date Mush, 146. 

Deep-fat Frying, 74-75. 

Dill Pickles, 157. 

Dinner Menu, 64. 

Directions for Measuring, 14-16. 

Dissolvents, 50. 

Doughnuts, Drop, ']'j. 

Plain, 77-78. 
Dressing, French, 221-222. 

Mayonnaise, 222-223. 

Rice and Tomato, 65. 
Dressings, for Salads, 221-223. 

for Fruit Salads, 224-225. 
Dried Fruits and Their Uses, 143- 

145- 

Drop Doughnuts, TJ. 

Economy, not False, but True, 

28-33- 
in Meat Buying, 53-62. 

Egg Sandwiches, 215. 

Elderly People, Food for, 205-209. 
Menus for, 208-209. 

Electricity, Cooking by, 40-43 . 

Elements of Everyday Food, 48-50. 

Energy Foods, 50. 

Entire Wheat and Bran Muffins, 
101-102. 

Epicurean Sauce,'232. 

Evaporation of Fruits and Vege- 
tables, 140-143. 
Time-table for, 141-142. 

Evaporator, How to Use, 141. 



Index 



243 



Fats, 50. 

in Menu Making, 71-74. 

Waste No, 78-79. 
Finances, Looking after, 21-24. 
Finnan Haddie, Perfection, 83- 

84. 
Fish, What to Serve with, 84-85. 
Fish Salad, 84. 
Flank Steak, 64. 
Food, for Elderly People, 205-209. 

Sense, 13-14. 
Foods, Buying of, 2. 

Cooking of, 3 . 

Elements of Everyday, 48-50. 

lOO-Calorie Portions of, 11-13. 

Tables of Nutrition, 8-1 1. 
Fore Quarter of Beef, 57-59. 
Forest Hill Corn Sticks, 107. 
French Dressing, 221-222. 
Fried Salt Pork, 66. 
Frosting, AUegretta, 233. 
Fruits and Vegetables 

Cold Pack Canning of, 135-139. 

Dried, I43-I44- 

Home Evaporation of, 141-143. 
Fruit Salad, 227. 

Salads and Dressings, 223-227. 
Frying, Deep-fat, 74-75- 
Fuels, 49. , 

Gas Range, Understanding, 36- 

40. 
Ginger Cookies, 204. 
Gluten Muffins, 102. 
Graham Pudding, 204-205. 
Grape, Conserve, 181. 

Jelly, 182-183. 

Juice, 180. 

Sirup, 180-181. 
Grapes, 179-180. 

Spiced, 158, 159. 
Green Tomato Pickles, 159-160. 
Grocery Bills, Reduce, 33-36. 



Hamburg Loaf, 62. 

Ham Mousse, 231-232. 

Hash, Baked Ham, 65. 

Hind Quarter of Beef, 60-62. 

History of Bread, 86-89. 

Home Canning, 132-135. 

Home Evaporation of Fruits and 
Vegetables, 140-143. 
Time-table for, 141- 142. 

Home Information about Milk, 
118-119. 

Honey in Menu Making, 200-204. 

Housekeeper's Measuring Sched- 
ule, 15-16. 

How to Crumb, 75. 

How to Judge Watermelon and 
Cantaloupe, 175-177. 

How to Serve Watermelon, 177. 

How to Use an Evaporator, 141. 

Ice Cream, Peach, 173. 

Prime, 145. 
Ice Water Pickles, 156-157. 
Informal Sunday Evening Suppers, 
228-233. 

Jelly, Grape, 182. 

Plum, 174-175- 
Jelly Making, Science of, 147-152. 

Kitchen, Stocking the, 43-47. 

Lamb with Peas, 231. 

Learn to Cook, 236-239. 

Lemon Pie, 167. 

Lemons, Use of, 161-163. 

Liquids, 50. 

Looking after Finances, 21-24. 

Luncheon, Sunday, 214. 

Macaroni, 112-113. 
Cooking, 114. 
Seasonings for, 114. 



244 



Index 



Marmalade, Amber, 153-154. 
Mayonnaise Dressing, 222-223. 
Measuring, Directions for, 14-16. 
Meat Buying, Economy in, 53- 

62. 
Meat Substitutes or Alternatives, 

68. 
Menu Making, Fats in, 71-74. 

Honey in, 200-204. 
Menus, Children's, 194-195. 

Dinner, 64. 

for Elderly People, 208-209. 

for Sunday, 214-215, 230-232. 

Vary with Fish, 80-83. 
Milk, Care of, 115-117. 

Home Information about, 118- 
119. 

Questions for Mothers Regarding, 
119-121. 
Milk Table, 122-123. 
Minerals and Acids, 50. 
Mousse, Ham, 231-232. 
Muscle Builders, 49. 
Muffins, Corn Meal, 105. 

Entire Wheat and Bran, loi- 
102. 

Gluten, 102. 
Mush, Corn Meal, 106. 

Date, 146. 

Necessities for Good Bread, 

96-97. 
Nut, Bread, 103. 
Loaf, 70. 

or Cheese Custard, 71. 
Nuts and Cheese of Meat Value, 

67-70. 
Nutrition and Wise Marketing, 
16-20. 

Olivia Salad, 227. 
Onions, Pickled, 158. 
Oranges, Use of, 161-163. 



Pastry, Plain, 163-166. 
Peaches and Plums, 171-172. 

Baked, 172. 
Peach, Ice Cream, 173. 

Sauce, 172. 
Pear Salad, 226, 

Perfection Finnan Haddie, 83-84. 
Pickled Onions, 158. 

Purple Cabbage, 159. 
Pickles, Dill, 157. 

Green Tomato, 159-160. 

Ice Water, 156-157. 

Watermelon, 178. 
Pickling Time, 1 54-160. 
Pie, Apple, 167. 

Apple Custard, 189. 

Berry, 163-165. 

Lemon, 167. 

Rhubarb, 166. 

Strawberry, 166-167. 
Plain Doughnuts, 'j']. 
Plum, Conserve, 173-174. 

Jelly, 174-175- 

Salad, 174, 
Pork, Fried Salt, 66. 
Preserves, Bar le Due, 205. 

Store for Winter, 152-153. 
Protein, 49. 
Prime Ice Cream, 145. 
Pudding, Corn Meal and Fig, 106. 

Graham, 204-205. 

Questions for Mothers, 119- 

121, 
Quick Buttermilk Bread, 125-126. 

Ready Food for the United 

States, 103. 
Reduce Grocery Bills, 33-36. 
Rhubarb Pie, 166. 
Rice, 107-109. 

Bavarian, 111-112. 

Cooking, 109-110. 



Index 



245 



Rice, Spanish, iii. 

Rice, and Tomato Dressing, 65. 

with Chicken, iii. 
Road to Men's Hearts, 234-236.- 
Rosy-cheeked Apples, 185. 
Round Steak a la Quin, 216. 

Salad, Apple and Date, 225. 

Christmas, 226. 

Cream Cheese and Bar le Due 
Currant, 231. 

Fish, 84. 

Fruit, 227. 

Olivia, 227. 

Pear, 226. 

Plum, 174. 
Salads and Salad Dressings, 216- 

223. 
Salted Cucumbers, 157-158. 
Sandwiches, Egg, 215. 

Tongue, 230. 
Sauce, Apple, 184-185. 

Cream, 186. 

Epicurean, 232. 

Peach, 172. 
School Lunches for Children, 196- 

200. 
Science of Jelly Making, 147-152. 
Scientific Cooking and Care in 

Cuts, 53-56. 
Seasonings for Macaroni, 114. 
Sherbet, Watermelon, 178. 
Shortcakes, 168-170. 

Apricot, 146-147. 

Number I, 1 70-1 71. 

Number II, 171. 
Short Ribs of Beef, 62. 
Sirup, Grape, 180-181. 
Sixth City Whole Wheat Bread, 

97-98. 
Soups, Cream, 195-196. 
Southern Spoon Corn Bread, 105- 
106. 



Spanish Rice, iii. 
Spiced Grapes, 158-159. 
Standardizing a Loaf of Bread, 

94-96. 
Starches, 49-50. 
Steak, a la Quin, 216. 

Flank, 64. 

Stuffed Round, 65. 
Stocking the Kitchen, 43-47. 
Store Preserves for Winter, 152- 

153. 
Strawberry Pie, 166-167. 
Stuifed Prunes, 147. 
Round Steak, 65. 
Suggestions for Children's Menus, 

195- 
Sunday Breakfast, 214. 

Luncheon, 214. 

Supper, 215-216, 228-233. 
Supper, Sunday, 215-216, 228-233. 
Sweets, 50. 

Table, Milk, 122-123. 

Tables, Atwater's Nutrition, 6-1 1. 

Time-table, for Fruit and Vege- 
table Canning, 137-139. 
for the Evaporation of Fruits 
and Vegetables, 141-142. 

Tongue Sandwiches, 230. 

Trained Nurse in the Home, 209- 
212. 

Truths about Canned Food, 127- 
132. 

Understanding the Gas Range, 

36-40. 
Use of Oranges, 161-163. 

Vacation for Mother, 212-216. 
Value of Whole Wheat Bread, 91- 

94- 
Variety of Cream Soups, 196. 
Vary Menus with Fish, 80-83. 



246 



Index 



Vegetable Food, Atwater's Nutri- 
tion Tables of, 8-11. 
Very Best Bread, loo-ioi. 

Waste no Fats, 78-79. 
Watermelon, how to Judge, 175- 
177. 
how to Serve, 177. 



Watermelon, Pickles, 178-179. 

Sherbet, 178. 
Week-end Vacation for Mother, 

212-216. 
What to Feed Children, 190-200. 
What to Serve with Fish, 84-85. 
Wheat Flour Substitutes, 98-99. 
Whole Wheat Crumpets, 126. 



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